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FOUNDATION 


THE 
DELINQUENT  CHILD 

AND  THE  HOME 


A  STUDY  OF  THE 

DELINQUENT  WARDS  OF  THE  JUVENILE 
COURT  OF  CHICAGO 


BY 
SOPHONISBA  P.  BRECKINRIDGE,  PH.D. 


AND 

EDITH  ABBOTT,  PH.D. 

DIRECTORS  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  OF  SOCIAL  INVESTIGATION, 
CHICAGO  SCHOOL  OF  CIVICS  AND    PHILANTHROPY 


WITH   AN    INTRODUCTION 
BY  JULIA  C.  LATHROP 

CHIEF    OF    THE    FEDERAL   CHILDREN'S    BUREAU 


NEW      YORK 

SURVEY      ASSOCIATES,      INC. 
MCM  XVI 


IDU'.CAT 


Copyright,  1912,  by 
THE  RUSSELL  SAGE  FOUNDATION 


Printed  June,  1912 
Reprinted  February,  1916 


PRESS  OF  WM.  F.  FELL  CO. 
PHILADELPHIA 


3C//.36 

B  -/M,,.  .7 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


PAGE 


INTRODUCTION i 

CHAPTER 

I.  Description  of  the  Inquiry 

II.  The  Wards  of  the  Court 

III.  The  Child  of  the  Immigrant:  The  Problem  of  Adjust- 

ment .       . 55 

IV.  The  Poor  Child:   The  Problem  of  Poverty    .       .       .     70 

V.  The  Orphan  and  the  Homeless  Child:  The  Problem  of 

Misfortune .90 

VI.  The  Child  from  the  Degraded  Home:  The  Problem    f 

Degeneracy 105 

VII.  The  Child  from  the  Crowded  Home:  The  Problem  of 

Confusion  .       .       . 115 

VIII.  The  Ignorant  Child:  The  Problem  of  the  School  .       .126 

IX.  The  Child  without  Play:   The  Problem  of  Neighbor- 

hood Neglect    151 

X.  The  Child  from  the  Comfortable  Home:  The  Problem 

of  the  Unmanageable  Boy 160 

XI.  The  Court  and  the  Delinquent  Family:  Some  Aspects 

of  the  Problem  of  Treatment 170 

APPENDICES 

I.  Legal    Problems    Involved  in  the   Establishment  of 
the  Juvenile  Court 181 

II.  Testimony  of  Judge  Merritt  W.  Pinckney  .       .       .  202 

III.  Abstract  of  Juvenile  Court  Laws 247 

vii 


TABLE   OF  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

IV.  Family  Paragraphs  Relating  to  the  Delinquency  of 
100  Boys  Brought  into  the  Juvenile  Court  of 
Cook  County  at  Chicago,  Illinois,  between  July  i, 
1903,  and  July  i,  1904 267 

V.  Family  Paragraphs  Relating  to  the  Delinquency  of 
50  Girls  Committed  to  the  State  Training  School 
at  Geneva  by  the  Juvenile  Court  of  Cook  County 
at  Chicago,  Illinois,  during  the  Years  1903  to  1908,  314 

VI.  Copies  of  Schedules  Used  in  the  Inquiry    .       .       .  333 
INDEX 345 


Vlll 


LIST  OF  TABLES 

TABLE  PAGE 

1.  Number  of   Delinquent  Boys   and  Girls  brought  to  court  each 

year  from  July  i,  1899,10  June  30,  1909        ....     21 

2.  Delinquent  Boys  brought  to  court  each  year  from  July  i,  1899, 

to  June  30,  1909.     Numbers  and  percentages. — By  age      .     24 

3.  Delinquent  Girls  brought  to  court  each  year  from  July  i,  1899, 

to  June  30,  1909.     Numbers  and  percentages. — By  age      .     24 

4.  Delinquent  Boys  and  Girls  brought  to  court  during  the  ten-year 

period  from  July  i,  1899,  to  June  30,  1909.     Totals  and  per- 
centages.— By  age 26 

5.  Delinquent  Boys  brought  to  court  each  year  from  July  i,  1899, 

to  June  30,  1909.     Numbers  and  percentages. — By  offense.     28 

6.  Specified  offense  of  908  delinquent  boys  brought  to  court  on  the 

charge  of  stealing,  between  July  i,  1907,  and  June  30,  1909    29 

7.  Delinquent  girls  brought  to  court  each  year  from  July  i,  1899,  to 

June  30,  1909.     Numbers  and  percentages. — By  offense      .     36 

8.  Delinquent  boys  and  girls  brought  to  court  during  the  ten-year 

period  from  July  i,  1899,  to  June  30,  1909.     Totals  and  per- 
centages.— By  offense 39 

9.  Disposition  of  cases  of  all  children  brought  to  court  between  July 

i,  1899,  and  June  30,  1909 40 

10.  Number  of  times  delinquent  children  were  brought  to  court  during 

the  eight-year  period  from  July  i,  1899,  to  June  30,  1907  .     42 

1 1 .  General  nativity  of  parents  of  delinquent  children  brought  to  court 

between  July  i,  1899,  and  June  30,  1909.     (Data  from  court 
records.) 57 

12.  General  nativity  of  parents  of  584  delinquent  boys  brought  to 

court  between  July  i,  1899,  and  June  30,  1909      (Data  from 
family  schedules.) 59 

13.  General  nativity  of  married  population  of  Chicago       .        .       .62 

14.  Age  at  immigration  of  foreign  born  parents  of  delinquent  boys  .     63 

ix 


LIST  OF  TABLES 

TABLE.  PACK 

15.  Number  of  foreign  born  parents  (of  280  delinquent  boys)  from 
other  than  English-speaking  countries  who  were  able  to 

speak,  read,  or  write  English 63 

—  16.  Classification  into  economic  groups  of  families  of  584  boys  and 

157  girls  for  whom  family  schedules  were  obtained       .       .     72 

17.  Occupation   before  commitment   of   181    girls   (77  from   Cook 

County  and   104  from  other  counties)  sent  to  the  State 
Training  School 78 

1 8.  Occupations  of  working  mothers  of  103  delinquent  boys  and  65 

delinquent  girls  brought  to  court  during  1903-04  .       .       .84 
- 19.  Parental    condition   of   delinquent   children   brought   to   court 
between  July   i,   1899,  and  June  30,    1909.     (Data  from 
court  records.) 91 

-  20.  Parental  conditiqn  of  584  delinquent  boys  and  157  delinquent 

girls  brought  to  court  during  1903-04.    (Data  from  family 

schedules.) 92 

_2i.  Number  of  children  brought  to  court  as  dependent  and  later 

returned  as  delinquent in 

-  22.  Number  of  children  in  the  families  of  584  delinquent  Boys  and 

157  delinquent  girls 116 

-  23.  Age  at  marriage  of  parents  of  delinquent  boys.    (Data  for  404 

fathers  and  430  mothers,  from  family  schedules.)  .       .       .124 

-  24.  Age  at  marriage  of  parents  of  delinquent  girls.  (Data for  87  fathers 

and  94  mothers.) 124 

25.  Age  at  which  274  delinquent  boys  entered  school. — By  nation- 

ality        128 

26.  Last  grade  attended  by  262  delinquent  boys,  and  age  at  leaving 

school 129 

27.  Delinquent  boys  who  "would  not  go  to  school"  during  the  years 

1903-1904  and  1907-1908. — By  age 141 

28.  Last  grade  attended  by  705  delinquent  girls  before  their  commit- 

ment to  Geneva,  and  age  at  time  of  commitment         .       .143 

29.  Offenses  of  delinquent  boys  from  comfortable  homes  (i.  e.,  from 

groups  III  or  IV)  brought  to  court  during  1903-04      .        .    166 

30.  Ages  of  delinquent  boys  from  comfortable  homes  (i.  e.,  from 

groups  III  or  IV) 167 


"  It  is  as  if  we  ignored  a  wistful,  over-confident  creature  who  walked 
through  our  city  streets  calling  out,  'I  am  the  spirit  of  Youth!  With  me, 
all  things  are  possible!'  We  fail  to  understand  what  he  wants  or  even  to 
see  his  doings*  although  his  acts  are  pregnant  with  meaning,  and  we  may 
either  translate  them  into  a  sordid  chronicle  of  petty  vice  or  turn  them 
into  a  solemn  school  for  civic  righteousness." — JANE  ADDAMS.  The 
Spirit  of  Youth  and  the  City  Streets. 


INTRODUCTION 

BY  JULIA  C.  LATHROP 

THIS  study  of  juvenile  delinquency  in  Cook  County,  Illinois, 
should  perhaps  be  prefaced  by  a  brief  statement  of  the 
conditions  which  led  to  the  establishment  of  the  juvenile 
court  of  Cook  County.    These  conditions  are  of  importance  since 
they  were  in  general  such  as  survived  in  other  parts  of  the  world  at 
the  time  of  the  enactment  of  the  Illinois  law  in  1899.    They  must 
also  be  taken  into  consideration  in  weighing  the  unquestionable 
imperfections  which  still  exist  in  the  organization  of  the  Illinois 
juvenile  courts  and  in  their  resources. 

Until  the  opening  of  the  juvenile  court  of  Cook  County, 
July  i,  1899,  the  offenses  of  Chicago  children  were  dealt  with 
under  the  same  laws  and  in  the  same  courts  as  were  the  offenses 
of  adults.  The  police  courts,  1 1  in  number,  scattered  over  the 
190  square  miles  of  the  city,  had  jurisdiction  over  most  of  the 
offenses  for  which  children  were  held.  Children  who  were  arrested 
and  were  unable  to  furnish  bail,  were  placed  in  the  cells  of  the 
police  station,  tried  by  the  police  justice,  and  if  punished,  were 
fined  and  imprisoned  in  the  Bridewell,  the  city  prison.  The  child 
"laid  out"  his  fine  unless  his  parents  were  willing  and  able  to 
pay  it.  If  the  fine  was  paid,  the  resources  of  the  family  were  re- 
duced by  just  so  much,  with  an  effect  upon  the  family  comfort  which 
can  be  judged  better  after  reading  the  chapter  entitled  The  Poor 
Child. 

As  to  the  effect  of  imprisonment,  we  have  no  way  of 
measuring  the  intrinsic  demoralization  of  a  child  from  a  prison 
term,  however  great  the  effort  to  minimize  its  evils  by  such 
methods  as  the  helpful  instruction  given  by  the  John  Worthy 
Manual  Training  School,  maintained  by  the  Chicago  Board  of 

i 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

Education  at  the  city  prison,  and  by  the  Pontiac  Reformatory, 
maintained  by  the  state  of  Illinois. 

From  the  first  of  January,  1899,  when  the  legislature  met 
which  enacted  the  measure  popularly  known  as  the  Juvenile 
Court  Law,  until  the  first  of  July,  1899,  when  that  law  went  into 
effect,  332  boys  between  the  ages  of  nine  and  sixteen  years  were 
sent  to  the  city  prison.  Three  hundred  and  twenty  of  them  were 
sent  up  on  the  blanket  charge  of  disorderly  conduct,  which  covered 
offenses  from  burglary  and  assault  with  a  deadly  weapon  to  pick- 
ing up  coal  on  the  railway  tracks,  building  bonfires,  playing  ball  in 
the  street,  or  "flipping  trains,"  that  is,  jumping  on  and  off  moving 
cars.  The  fines  imposed,  as  the  following  table  shows,  varied  from 
less  than  $5.00  to  $500  and  were  "laid  out"  at  the  uniform  rate  of 
50  cents  a  day. 


NUMBER  OF   BOYS   SENT  TO  THE    BRIDEWELL    FROM   JANUARY    I    TO 
JUNE  30,   1899,  AND  THE  AMOUNT  OF  FINE  IMPOSED  UPON  THEM 

Amount  of  Fine  Number  of  Boys 

No  fine 3 

Under  $5 1 1 

and  under  $10  13 


$10  and  under  $15 
Si  5  and  under  $20 
$20  and  under  $30 
$30  and  under  $50 
$50  and  under  $70 


29 
24 
81 

7' 

$70  and  under  $90 47 

$90  or  over 52a 

Total 332 

a5i  of  these  52  boys  were  fined  $101.50  each  and  one  was  fined  $500. 


The  first  of  the  two  following  tables  shows  that  nearly  half 
of  these  boys  were  under  fourteen  and  that,  while  in  a  small  num- 
ber of  cases  their  fines  were  paid  and  in  a  large  number  of  cases  the 
boys  were  pardoned  by  the  mayor,  the  great  majority  served  terms 
varying  from  a  few  days  to  nine  months.  It  is  of  interest  that 
the  one  nine-year-old  boy  served  between  three  and  four  months. 

Of  greater  interest,  however,  is  the  second  table,  which 
shows  that  one-third  of  these  boys  had  been  committed  before, 
some  of  them  as  many  as  six  times. 

2 


INTRODUCTION 


AGE  AT  COMMITMENT  OF  THE   332    BOYS   SENT  TO  THE   BRIDEWELL 
FROM  JANUARY    I   TO  JUNE  30,    1899. — BY  DISPOSITION  OF  CASE 


Final  Disposition 

AGE  AT  COMMITMENT 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

16 

Released   without    serving 
time  by 
Mayor's  pardon 
Payment  of  fine 
Order  of  court 

4 

2 

9 
i 

>7 

3 

i? 
4 

23 

10 

i 

6 
8 

'6 

18 
4 

6 

9 
i 

9 
i 

8 

i 

15 

12 
I 
I 

>3 
15 

7 

7 
i 

Suspension  of  sentence  . 
Served  sentence  of 
Less  than  i  month 
i  to  2  months  . 
2  to  3  months  . 
3  to  4  months  . 
4  to  5  months  . 

2 

6 
7 

7 

I 

3 
3 

3 
4 

4 
13 
i 

4 

5  u  6  months  . 
6  to  7  months  .       .       . 
8  to  9  months  . 

4 
i 

3 

6 

13 

6 

i 

Total     .... 

18 

20 

48 

56 

60 

57 

72 

Total 

Per 
Cent 

103 
36 

2 

31.0 

10.8 
0.6 

3 

0.9 

36 

58 

2 

10.8 

'7-5 
0.6 

41 

12.4 

I 

0.3 

47 

2 

14.2 
0.6 

I 

0.3 

332 

IOO.O 

AGE  AT  COMMITMENT  OF   I  I  I    BOYS  SENT  TO  THE  BRIDEWELL  FROM 
JANUARY    I   TO   JUNE    30,    1899,    WHO   HAD    PREVIOUSLY    BEEN 

COMMITTED 


Number  of  Times  Pre- 
viously Committed 

AGE  AT  LAST  COMMITMENT 

Total 

Per 
Cent 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

16 

Once  
Twice        .... 
Three  times 
Four  times 

i 

3 

4 

2 

7 

2 

'7 
6 

3 

I 

i 
3 

II 
3 
4 

15 
6 

5 
i 

67 

25 
8 
8 

2 

60.4 
22.5 

7-2 
7-2 

0.9 

1.8 

Five  times 

Six  times  .... 

i 

i 

Total 

i 

3 

6 

9 

26 

20 

19 

27 

II  I 

IOO.O 

The  alternative  to  imprisonment  was  discharge.  But  dis- 
charge did  not  mean,  under  conditions  then  prevailing,  escape 
from  demoralization.  Children  who  were  brought  to  court  were 

3 


THE    DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND   THE   HOME 

again  and  again  "let  off"  by  the  police  justices  who  dreaded  to 
send  them  to  the  Bridewell;  and  as  may  be  seen  from  the  first 
table,  many  of  those  who  were  found  guilty  and  sentenced  were 
later  pardoned.  Out  of  the  332  cases  sent  to  the  Bridewell  during 
the  first  half  of  the  year  1899,  nearly  one-third  were  pardoned  by 
the  mayor.  These  pardons,  usually  an  alderman's  favor,  depended 
upon  "pull"  at  the  city  hall  rather  than  upon  the  merits  of  the 
case.  But  the  significant  fact  which  must  not  be  overlooked  is 
that,  even  if  "let  off"  by  the  justice  or  pardoned  by  the  mayor, 
no  constructive  work  was  done  in  the  child's  behalf.  He  was 
returned  to  the  same  surroundings  that  had  promoted  his  delin- 
[quency,  in  all  probability  to  be  caught  again  and  brought  before 
another  justice  who,  knowing  nothing  of  the  previous  arrests, 
would  discharge  or  fine  him  again  as  seemed  wise  at  the  moment. 

That  is,  whatever  was  done  in  the  case  was  necessarily  done 
with  little  or  no  relation  to  the  child's  history  or  surroundings. 
Not  only  in  Cook  County  but  throughout  the  state  of  Illinois 
these  conditions  existed.  Boys  were  kept  in  "lockups"  and  jails 
in  the  company  of  adult  prisoners,  under  circumstances  which 
were  a  guaranty  of  ruined  character,  and  were  "let  off  with  a 
scolding"  by  the  justices  because  a  jail  sentence,  however  well 
deserved  according  to  the  law,  was  so  manifestly  bad  for  the 
boy. 

For  years  a  number  of  public  spirited  citizens  in  Chicago 
and  throughout  the  state,  representing  numerous  organizations 
of  men  and  women  and  various  religious  beliefs,  had  felt  deep 
concern  over  these  conditions.  Finally,  as  the  culmination  of 
long  effort,  there  was  enacted  the  law  of  1899,  drawn  by  Hon. 
Harvey  B.  Hurd.  It  was  entitled  a  Law  for  the  Care  of  Depen- 
dent, Neglected,  and  Delinquent  Children. 

Certain  provisions  affected  local  Illinois  conditions,  but 
the  features  which  have  attracted  universal  attention  have  been, 
of  course,  those  of  general  application — the  recognition  of  the 
delinquent  child  as  a  ward  in  chancery  and  not  as  an  accused  or 
convicted  criminal,  the  separate  court  for  children's  cases,  and 
the  system  of  probation.  Doubtless  none  of  these  provisions  was 
an  original  conception,  but  the  combination  of  a  separate  court, 
a  separate  place  of  detention  for  children,  the  abolition  of  fines 

4 


INTRODUCTION 

and  the  system  of  returning  the  child  to  his  home  and  providing 
probation  officers  to  help  him  there,  was  probably  new,  and  was 
certainly  unprecedented  in  a  city  as  large  as  Chicago.* 

Undoubtedly,  the  spectacular  quality  inevitable  in  a  court 
assembling  the  neglected  childhood  of  a  city  of  2,000,000  inhabi- 
tants was  an  element  in  securing  interest  for  the  Chicago  court; 
but  the  rapid  adoption  of  similar  methods  in  other  parts  of  this 
country  and  abroad  was  an  almost  simultaneous  expression  of  a 
slowly  matured,  popular  conviction  that  the  growing  child  must 
not  be  treated  by  those  rigid  rules  of  criminal  procedure  which 
confessedly  fail  to  prevent  offenses  on  the  part  of  adults  or  to  cure 
adult  offenders. 

Obviously,  the  new  method  of  dealing  with  neglected  chik 
dren  should  take  into  account  not  an  isolated  child,  but  a  child  in  / 
a  certain  family  and  amid  certain  neighborhood  surroundings,  / 
and  a  judge  should  base  his  action  upon  the  value  or  the  danger 
to  the  child  of  his  surroundings.     Hence  this  study  inevitably 
deals  with  the  families  to  which  the  children  belong,  or,  too  often, 
with  the  broken  and  disfigured  fragments  of  those  families. 

As  the  material  gathered  from  the  court  files,  the  probation 

*  The  material  equipment  and  facilities  of  the  Cook  County  Juvenile  Court 
are  now  a  three-story  brick  building  on  Ewing  Street,  Chicago,  which  contains  on 
the  first  floor  a  court  room  very  simply  arranged  and  so  small  that  only  those 
immediately  interested  in  a  case  can  appear  before  the  judge  or  hear  the  proceedings; 
the  offices  of  the  clerks,  probation  officers,  and  attorney  of  the  court;  the  clinic,  in 
which  each  child  is  examined  by  a  physician  before  hearing;  and  the  necessary 
waiting  rooms  for  the  public,  officers,  and  children.  On  the  second  and  third  floors 
are  quarters  for  temporary  care  known  as  the  detention  home,  with  separate  pro- 
visions for  four  classes  of  children,  (i)  dependent  girls,  (2)  dependent  boys,  (3)  de- 
linquent boys,  and  (4)  delinquent  girls,  together  with  living  accommodations  for 
the  superintendent.  At  present  the  Juvenile  Psychopathic  Institute,  a  volunteer 
society,  also  has  offices  here  free  o{  charge.  This  society  carries  on  the  work  of  ex- 
amining children  who  there  is  reason  to  believe  are  defective  or  abnormal,  and,  in 
general,  places  itself  at  the  service  of  the  court.  For  further  description  of  the  Juve- 
nile Psychopathic  Institute  and  of  the  school  in  the  juvenile  court  building,  see 
Hart,  Hastings  H.:  Preventive  Treatment  of  Neglected  Children,  pp.  282-284. 
Russell  Sage  Foundation  Publication. 

The  superintendent  of  the  detention  home  is  a  trained  nurse.  She  is  a  civil 
service  appointee  as  are  the  physician,  the  women  attendants,  and  the  men  guards. 
Although  the  children  are  there  only  for  short  periods,  usually  from  a  day  to  a 
week,  it  has  been  found  a  most  effective  method  of  providingorderand  a  good 
moral  atmosphere  to  keep  them  in  a  school  room.  The  Chicago  School  Board, 
recognizing  that  these  are  for  the  most  part  school  children  and  under  the  com- 
pulsory education  law,  provides  public  schoo1  teachers.  The  greatest  care  is 
taken  with  the  food  and  personal  hygiene,  and  with  the  organization  of  the  service. 

3  5 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD    AND   THE    HOME 

officers'  records,*  the  interviews  with  probation  officers,  and  from 
the  investigators'  visits  slowly  took  form,  the  histories  of  these 
"delinquent"  families  became  so  compelling  in  their  interest,  so 
luminous  yet  so  baffling,  that  it  was  determined  to  print  in  the  ap- 
.^-pendices  a  series  of  these  brief  biographies  in  the  belief  that  such 
compressed  but  faithful  records  should  be  preserved.!  They  will 
bear  many  interpretations,  but  we  believe  that  primarily  they  show 
-^  with  a  new  emphasis  the  importance  for  weal  or  woe  of  the  family 
/  unit.  The  waywardness  of  the  sons  and  of  the  daughters  goes 
back  to  the  same  causes,  is  indeed  of  the  same  stuff,  but  with  differ- 
ences of  manifestation  due  to  the  fact  that  each  child  follows  the  line 
of  least  resistance.  One  sees  again  and  again  in  the  histories  of  the 
delinquent  boys  reference  to  an  older  sister  gone  wrong,  just  as  in 
the  histories  of  the  girls  sent  to  the  State  Training  School  at  Geneva, 
the  brothers  frequently  appear  as  delinquents. 

The  family  histories  show  groups  of  children  whose  difficul- 
ties are  assigned  to  some  one  principal  cause,  although  they  are 
seldom  or  never  unmixed  with  various  elements,  which  are  con- 
sidered under  the  headings  of  the  separate  chapters. 

In  addition,  certain  figures  emerge  through  all  the  classi- 
fications. Of  these  none  is  more  often  met  and  certainly  none  can 
be  more  appealing  than  that  of  the  working  mother.  Into  her 
lap  ill  fortune  has  poured  calamities  that  have  crowded  out  her 
children.  First  come  all  the  causes  that  take  away  the  support  of 

*  This  study  was  possible  only  because  of  the  approval  and  co-operation  of 
the  various  officials  in  charge  of  the  Chicago  Juvenile  Court:  Hon.  Richard  S. 
Tuthill,  presiding  magistrate,  Joseph  R.  Bidwell,  Jr.,  clerk  of  the  Circuit  Court,  and 
Hon.  William  Busse,  president  of  the  board  of  Cook  County  Commissioners.  The 
probation  officers  and  the  clerk  of  the  court  aided  in  every  possible  way,  often  at 
considerable  personal  inconvenience.  Hull-House  generously  allowed  the  use  of 
an  office  there  while  the  field  work  was  being  carried  on.  All  schedules  were  sub- 
mitted to  Mr.  John  Keren,  of  the  federal  census  bureau,  and  Mr.  Ethelbert 
Stewart,  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor,  and  their  advice  was  invaluable. 
Hon.  Julian  W.  Mack  and  other  friends  who  have  read  the  following  pages  have 
given  comment  and  suggestion  which  have  helped  to  make  the  inquiry  what  it  is. 
Mrs.  Ophelia  Amigh,  superintendent  of  the  State  Training  School  for  Girls,  at 
Geneva,  Illinois,  wjjose  intelligent  and  warm-hearted  interest  in  those  who  came 
under  her  charge  impelled  her  to  co-operate  in  this  inquiry,  was  of  indispensable 
assistance. 

To  Dr.  Graham  Taylor,  president  of  the  Chicago  School  of  Civics  and  Phi- 
lanthropy, and  to  Miss  Breckinridge  and  Miss  Abbott,  directors  of  its  Department 
of  Social  investigation,  I  wish  to  express  my  appreciation  of  the  generosity  which 
has  permitted  a  mere  associate  to  write  this  prefatory  note. 

f  See   Appendices  IV  and  V,  pages  267  and  314. 

6 


INTRODUCTION 

the  breadwinner:  death,  too  often  due  to  industrial  accident  or 
disease,  wages  below  a  living  standard,  lack  of  work,  illness,  drunk- 
enness, desertion — all  these  either  temporarily  or  permanently 
compelling  the  mother  to  be  also  the  breadwinner.* 

The  children,  as  the  phrase  goes,  "get  ahead  of  her"  because 
there  is  no  one  to  look  after  them  in  the  hours  when  they  are  not 
in  school.  To  one  familiar  with  poor  neighborhoods,  with  the 
records  of  charity  offices  and  of  the  juvenile  court,  there  can  be 
no  question  that  a  mother  cannot  be  expected  to  succeed  in  the 
duty  of  keeping  her  house  and  children  while  she  uses  up  in  earn- 
ing money  time  and  strength  all  of  which  are  needed  to  discharge 
the  more  fundamental  duty.  Doubtless  some  women  of  excep- 
tional ability  do  so  succeed,  but  that  does  not  affect  the  many  cases 
of  heroic  failure. 

These  paragraphs,  together  with  the  chapter  which  deals 
with  the  school, f  make  a  vivid  presentation  of  the  fact  that  many 
boys  are  far  from  possessing  that  primary  tool  for  earning  a  living 
in  this  country,  a  decent  command  of  the  English  language, 
whether  this  lack  may  be  chargeable  to  causes  within  or  without 
the  child's  mind. 

In  the  selected  histories  of  the  families  of  boysf  who  have 
been  obvious  failures  and  who  are  now  in  Joliet,  Pontiac,  the  Bride- 
well, and  other  places  of  detention,  we  find  drunkenness,  poverty, 
indecency,  cruelty,  demoralizing  childish  work  at  selling  papers 
and  at  other  unskilled,  irresponsible  occupations,  sickness,  insan- 
ity, nagging  and  beating,  coarse  bullying,  fathers'  and  mothers' 
quarrels — in  brief,  there  is  no  phase  of  family  misery  which  is  not 
illustrated  in  this  fearful  picture  of  a  bad  child's  progress.  On 

*  In  Chapter  V,  The  Orphan  and  Homeless  Child  (Table  19,  p.Qi),  it  is  shown 
that  out  of  the  14,183  children  who  came  into  the  Chicago  court  during  the  years 
between  July  i,  1899,  and  June  30,  1909,  14  per  cent  of  the  boys  and  18  per  cent  of 
the  girls  had  lost  their  fathers;  9  per  cent  of  the  boys  and  13  per  cent  of  the  girls 
had  lost  their  mothers.  That  is,  of  the  children  who  had  lost  one  parent,  over  50 
per  cent  more  had  lost  their  fathers  than  had  lost  their  mothers.  Figures  as  to 
mothers  who  have  living  husbands  but  who  are  obliged  to  work  more  or  less  steadily 
are  not  always  attainable,  but  they  are  certainly  a  considerable  additional  element. 
Compare  Morrison,  W.  Douglas:  Juvenile  Offenders,  p.  139.  New  York,  D.  Appleton 
and  Company,  1897.  In  the  five  years  between  1887  and  1891  the  number  of  chil- 
dren committed  to  English  industrial  schools  who  were  dependent  upon  the  mother 
constituted  20  per  cent  of  the  inmates. 

t  Chapter  VIII,  p.  126.  JSee  Appendix  IV,  p.  267. 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND   THE    HOME 

the  other  hand,  nothing  is  more  touching  than  the  many  cases  in 
which  the  boy  returns  spontaneously  and  unaccountably  from 
waywardness  and  settles  down  to  the  heavy  pull  of  supporting 
the  family  into  which  he  was  born,  under  the  very  circumstances 
which  seemed  to  have  provoked  his  rebellion.  If  a  boy's  will  is 
the  wind's  will,  and  the  period  of  wilful  adventure  must  have  its 
gusty  way,  it  is  quite  as  true  that  the  wind  often  quiets,  and  the 
young  worker  comes  meekly  under  the  family  yoke  and  shows 
the  finest  proof  of  fealty  to  the  family  by  bringing  home  his  pay 
envelope  unopened. 

It  is  not  so  easy  to  speak  of  his  elder  sister's  return,  and  we 
are  still  too  unused  to  regarding  her  waywardness  as  of  like  quality 
with  his,  however  different  its  manifestation — a  difference  which 
increases  so  inexpressibly  the  difficulty  of  her  return  to  orderly 
living,  yet  which,  as  a  few  of  the  histories  show,  does  permit 
her  return  also  to  hard,  thankless  toil  under  the  parental  roof. 

Of  course  there  is  a  mysterious  innate  tendency  to  steadiness 
as  the  child  grows  up,  and  an  invincible  goodness  which  emerges 
at  last  triumphant  over  the  perils  of  youth  in  persons  of  certain 
vigor;  otherwise  these  sad  pages  would  contain  a  far  more  des- 
perate record  than  they  do  of  the  comparatively  few  members  of 
the  family  groups  in  whom  goodness  was  not  invincible. 

Important  as  are  the  immediate  services  of  a  juvenile  court 
to  the  children  who  are  daily  brought  before  it  for  protection  and 
guidance,  because  the  family  protection  has  broken  down  and 
there  is  no  family  guidance;  painstaking  as  are  the  court's  methods 
of  ascertaining  the  facts  which  account  for  the  child's  trouble,  his 
family  history,  his  own  physical  and  mental  state;  hopeful  as 
are  the  results  of  probation;  yet  the  great  primary  service  of  the 
court  is  that  it  lifts  up  the  truth  and  compels  us  to  see  that  wast- 
age of  human  life  whose  sign  is  the  child  in  court. 

Heretofore,  the  kindly  but  hurried  public  never  saw  as  a 
whole  what  it  cannot  now  avoid  seeing — the  sad  procession  of 
little  children  and  older  brothers  and  sisters  who,  for  various 
reasons,  cannot  keep  step  with  the  great  company  of  normal, 
orderly,  protected  children.  Arnold  Toynbee  said,  "If  West 
London  could  know  East  London  there  would  be  no  East  London"; 
and  so  in  time,  we  may  believe,  the  picture  presented  by  the  juve- 

8 


INTRODUCTION 

nile  court  will  by  repeated  emphasis  so  impress  itself  upon  the  mind 
of  the  town  that  new  safeguards  will  be  found  for  adequately 
protecting  the  most  precious  possession  of  the  town — its  young 
life. 

The  results  of  this  investigation  lack  that  precise  definition 
which  is  comforting  to  the  reforming  spirit.  The  study  shows 
that  there  are  many  elements  combined  in  uncertain  numbers 
and  quality,  some,  not  all,  discernible,  none  answering  absolutely 
to  quantitative  analysis.  The  question  would  be  comparatively 
simple  if  it  could  be  considered  one  alone  of  better  income  for  the 
family,  save  in  certain  defined  groups;  for  instance,  in  those 
groups  which  include  widowed  mothers  incompetent  to  rear  their 
children  even  if  they  had  time. 

While  the  study  gives  reason  for  going  forward  in  the  direc- 
tion already  taken  it  shows  no  cure-all.  It  makes  the  question  of 
youthful  delinquency  very  searching  and  subtle,  not  to  be  solved 
by  any  court  or  system  of  institutions,  or  probation,  or  other 
wise  contrivances  attempted  as  substitutes  for  wholesome,  orderly, 
decent  family  life.  These  contrivances  wholly  restore  some  chil- 
dren, partly  restore  others,  and  sometimes  fail;  but  they  never 
seal  up  the  sources  of  delinquency. 

Never  before  has  the  setting  of  the  child  in  his  family  and 
city  been  made  part  of  the  statement  of  his  overt  disobedience  to 
law;  never  before  has  this  picture  been  submitted  to  a  court  of 
law,  instead  of  the  facts  technically  recognized  as  legal  evidence; 
never  before  has  the  judge  been  free  to  dispose  of  the  child  solely 
with  a  view  to  offering  him  the  best  chance  of  wholesome  life 
without  regard  to  previous  offenses. 

Is  it  not  plain  that  such  a  court  to  be  effective  must  be  pro- 
vided with  very  different  facilities  from  those  of  jails  and  prisons, 
with  officers  of  a  different  experience  from  that  of  sheriffs  and 
bailiffs?  In  the  particular  court  under  consideration  these  facil- 
ities are  still  meager.  Public  money  for  such  boarding-out  of 
children  as  Scotland  and  Massachusetts  have  long  carried  on 
with  brilliant  success,  is  absolutely  lacking.  Institutions  are 
painfully  inadequate,  whether  public  or  private.  They  are  almost 
without  exception  crowded,  overgrown,  and  incapable  of  affording 
proper  classification.  The  excellent  staff  of  probation  officers 

9 


and  the  many  devoted  volunteer  agents,  private  agents  or  agents  of 
voluntary  societies,  in  the  service  of  the  court  give  their  efforts  un- 
stintingly  and  succeed  in  restoring  many  children  and  many  fami- 
lies. Yet  as  this  volume  shows,  we  must  remember  that  they  are 
called  upon  in  too  many  instances  to  deal  with  conditions  of  so  baf- 
fling a  complexity  as  to  have  been  regarded  heretofore  as  beyond 
human  reach.  Of  course,  failure  is  the  frequent  result.  As  soon 
as  the  public  provides  the  equipment  obviously  essential  we  shall 
see  a  growing  effectiveness  in  the  care  by  the  court  of  the  children 
under  its  direction.  /But  the  great  and  memorable  fact  must  re- 
main, that  all  children  need  for  successful  rearing  the  same  condi- 
tions: homes  of  physical  and  moral  decency,  fresh  air,  education, 
recreation,  the  fond  care  of  wise  fathers  and  mothers.  These  es- 
sentials curtailed  at  any  point,  the  degree  of  human  wastage  grows 
with  the  curtailment.  No  institution,  no  probation  system,  no 
orders  of  court,  can  instantly  produce  from  chaos  these  essentials. 
After  reading  some  of  the  children's  histories  published  in  the 
appendices,  the  reader  may  be  tempted  to  exclaim  with  horror,  "  The 
juvenile  court  is  a  failure,"  though  if  his  eye  had  first  fallen  on 
another  group  his  comment  would  have  been  one  of  approval ;  but 
such  comment  in  either  case  misses  the  point.  For  the  first  time  in 
history  a  court  of  law,  the  so-called  juvenile  court,  reveals  a  great 
social  situation  and  thereby  bestows  the  greatest  aid  toward  social 
justice  which  this  generation  comprehends — the  truth  made  public. 


10 


CHAPTER  I 
DESCRIPTION   OF  THE  INQUIRY 

THIS  inquiry  into  the  work  of  the  juvenile  court  was  under- 
taken in  the  hope  that  two  ends  might  be  accomplished: 
(i)  a   better  understanding  of  the  needs  of  all  children, 
based  upon  a  more  exact  knowledge  of  the  conditions  surrounding 
the  special  group  studied;  (2)  a  more  intelligent  judgment  .with 
reference  to  the  possible  usefulness  of  the  juvenile  court  in  serving 
children,  and  the  lines  along  which  that  institution  should  be 
developed. 

The  court  deals  under  the  statutes  with  three  classes  of 
children:*  (i)  dependent  or  neglected  children,  that  is,  children 
who.  are  destitute  or  homeless;  (2)  truant  children,  children  who 
have  not  attended  school  as  the  compulsory  education  law  re- 
quires; and  (3)  delinquent  children,  children  "who  violate  any  law, 
who  are  incorrigible,  who  knowingly  associate  with  vicious  persons, 
who  are  growing  up  in  idleness  and  crime,  who  knowingly  frequent 
a  disorderly  gaming  house/' 

The  three  groups  are  brought  into  court  by  different  proc- 
esses, for  different  causes,  and  are  supposedly  in  need  of  different 
kinds  of  treatment.  It  is  clear,  however,  that  no  hard  and  fast 
lines  can  be  drawn  between  them.  Some  children  will  be  brought 
in  first  as  dependent  or  truant  and  afterwards  as  delinquent; 
others  are  at  the  same  time  both  dependent  and  delinquent,  or 
truant  and  delinquent,  or  truant  and  dependent;  while  still  others 
are  so  affected  by  experiences  which  have  come  to  them  without 
fault  on  their  part  that,  although  technically  dependent,  they  are  in 
fact  not  fit  companions  for  children  who  have  no  corresponding 
knowledge  of  wrongdoing,  and  must  be  treated  as  if  they  were 
themselves  delinquent.  This  difficulty  of  classification  manifests 
itself  in  the  tables  presenting  the  lists  of  offenses  for  which  delin- 
*  See  Illinois  Revised  Statutes,  chap.  23,  sec.  169,  and  chap.  122,  sec.  144. 

1 1 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

quent  boys  and  girls  are  brought  to  court.*  In  these  tables  truancy 
and  dependency  are  included  as  if  they  were  delinquent  charges,  a 
seeming  confusion  which  is  due  to  the  fact  that  children  are  some- 
times committed  to  a  delinquent  institution  and  therefore  treated 
as  if  they  were  in  fact  delinquent,  when  the  charge  in  the  court 
record  may  be  only  "  lack  of  care,"  "  death  of  mother  and  drunken 
father,"  "desertion  of  father  and  drunkenness  of  mother,"  or  some 
similar  charge  against  the  home.  But  children  who  have  been  so 
criminally  neglected,  even  if  they  have  themselves  committed  no 
offense,  are  often  contaminated  by  their  surroundings.  For  this 
reason  it  sometimes  becomes  necessary  to  place  them  in  institutions 
with  delinquent  children  in  order  to  protect  other  dependent  chil- 
dren, whose  experiences  have  not  been  demoralizing.  This  ap- 
parent confusion  in  classification  becomes  therefore  an  evidence  of 
the  effort  made  by  the  court  to  treat  children  according  to  their 
needs,  unhampered  by  any  arbitrary  system  of  definition  or  classifi- 
cation. 

4  Although  no  clear  line  can  in  fact  be  drawn  between  any  two 
of  these  groups  of  children  who  are  brought  before  the  court  for 
purposes  of  treatment,  they  are,  as  has  been  pointed  out,  distin- 
guished in  the  juvenile  court  law,  and  the  delinquent  group  as  de- 
fined in  the  statute  was  selected  as  the  first  subject  of  the  inquiry.! 
This  group  was  selected  in  part  because  of  the  peculiar  interest  at- 
taching to  the  problems  of  offending  children  in  relation  to  our  judi- 
cial and  penal  system,  and  in  part  because,  while  the  situation  of  the 
delinquent  child  is  a  more  striking  and  obviously  appealing  one,  the 
problems  presented  to  the  court  by  the  offenses  of  delinquent  chil- 
dren are  not  so  fundamentally  difficult  as  those  presented  by  the 
poverty  and  helplessness  of  the  dependent  group. 

It  was  clear  at  the  outset  that  a  study  of  the  delinquent 
wards  of  the  court  would  divide  itself  into  three  parts:  (i)  a 
discussion  of  the  court  in  its  legal  and  constitutional  aspects; 

*  Table  5,  p.  28,  and  Table  7,  p.  36. 

t  It  is  hoped  that  at  a  later  date  corresponding  studies  of  the  dependent  and 
truant  groups  may  be  presented.  The  law  applied  at  first  to  "children  under  six- 
teen not  now  or  hereafter  inmates  of  state  institutions,  or  any  training  school  for 
boys  or  industrial  school  for  girls  or  some  institution  incorporated  under  the  laws 
of  this  state  except  *  *  *  ."  Session  Laws  of  Illinois  (1899),  p.  131.  In  1905 
the  age  limit  was  altered  to  seventeen  for  "male  children"  and  eighteen  for  "female 
children."  Session  Laws  (1905),  p.  152. 

12 


DESCRIPTION   OF   THE    INQUIRY 

(2)  a  study  of  the  conditions  from  which  delinquent  children 
come,  together  with  an  analysis  of  the  problems  presented  to  the 
court  by  these  conditions;  (3)  a  detailed  account  of  the  adminis- 
trative questions  connected  with  the  organization  and  procedure 
of  the  court. 

The  present  volume  deals  only  with  the  seomo^of  these  lines 
of  inquiry;  that  is,  the  court  in  its  relation  to  the  families  and 
homes  from  which  its  delinquent  wards  have  come.  A  study  of  the 
court  in  its  legal  aspects,  with  a  presentation  of  the  authorities  and 
principles  underlying  this  apparently  novel  invasion  of  parental 
right  on  the  part  of  the  community  and  its  assumption  of  the 
duties  hitherto  laid  solely  upon  parents,  is  presented  in  the  first  of 
the  appendices  in  this  volume.  It  may  be  said  here,  however,  that 
there  is  nothing  novel  in  the  assumption  by  the  state  of  the  care  of 
the  weak  and  defenseless,  among  whom  the  children  that  become 
wards  of  the  court  may  surely  be  counted.  1 1  should  also  be  said  that 
although  the  parent,  and  especially  the  father,  was  in  earlier  times 
allowed  very  great  power,  he  was  never  under  English  or  American 
law  held  responsible  for  exercising  that  power  in  behalf  of  the  child. 
The  only  novel  features  characteristic  of  the  court  are,  first,  the 
ability  to  carry  into  practice  principles  long  recognized  and,  second, 
the  formulation  of  new  principles  of  parental  duty  which  bring  the 
legal  conception  of  the  rights  of  parents  into  accord  with  the  legal 
principles  governing  all  those  instances  in  which  the  community 
allows  one  individual  the  exercise  of  any  compulsory  control  over 
the  person  and  conduct  of  another.  In  a  community  which  has 
abandoned  slavery  as  a  possible  human  relationship,  power  exercised 
by  one  person  over  another  must  be  exercised  in  behalf  of  and  for  the 
benefit  of  that  other,  and  the  community  must  always  be  able  to 
judge  whether  or  not  it  is  in  any  particular  instance  being  so 
exercised.  A  means  of  thus  judging  and  standardizing  this 
exercise  of  parental  power  has  been  devised  by  the  creation  of  the 
juvenile  court. 

With  this  statement  regarding  the  selection  and  limitation 
of  the  subject,  it  becomes  important  to  describe  in  detail  the 
sources  of  information  and  the  methods  employed  in  the  investi- 
gation, in  order  that  the  results  may  be  correctly  understood.  The 
court  records  themselves  constituted  the  initial  body  of  data  and 

'3 


THE    DELINQUENT   CHILD    AND   THE    HOME 

served  as  the  starting  point  and  basis  for  the  whole  inquiry.* 
With  the  approval  of  the  county  officers  and  of  the  judge  then 
sitting,  the  records  of  all  the  delinquent  cases  handled  by  the  court 
from  July  i,  1899,  the  date  of  its  establishment,  to  June  30,  1909, 
the  close  of  its  first  decade  of  work,  were  transcribed  and  tabulated. 
Data  were  obtained  from  these  records  as  to  the  number, 
nationality,  and  age  of  the  children  brought  into  court  each  year 
and  the  disposition  which  was  there  made  of  their  cases.  These 
records,  however,  furnished  very  little  information  concerning  the 
child's  family  and  home;  and  the  occasional  statements  regarding 
the  health,  employment,  or  school  record  of  the  children  were  too 
fragmentary  to  be  of  value.  It  was  therefore  decided  to  visit  the 
homes  and  talk  with  the  parents  of  a  large  group  of  children  in 
order  to  obtain  such  data  as  were  necessary  for  a  more  detailed 
and  thorough  study  of  the  conditions  surrounding  the  delinquent 
children  of  the  court.  It  was  obviously  impossible  to  visit  the 
homes  of  all  these  children;  but  it  was  thought  that  a  representa- 
tive group  could  be  obtained  out  of  the  whole  number  by  selecting 

*  A  word  should  be  said  as  to  the  investigators  of  whose  services  the  depart- 
ment availed  itself.  As  the  judge  of  the  court  believed  that  the  information  secured 
by  them  could  be  made  of  immediate  use  in  determining  certain  questions  affecting 
the  children  whose  families  were  interviewed,  the  investigators  were  appointed  pro- 
bation officers  during  the  period  of  their  connection  with  the  inquiry.  It  should  be 
explained,  however,  that  the  investigation  was  carried  on  by  the  Department  of 
Social  Investigation  of  the  Chicago  School  of  Civics  and  Philanthropy.  The  in- 
vestigators were,  therefore,  primarily  chosen  as  students.  They  proved  to  be,  in 
the  main,  sympathetic  and  tactful  young  persons,  whose  approach  was,  in  general, 
successfully  made  because  they  kept  in  mind  that  the  ultimate  interest  of  all  con- 
nected with  the  inquiry  was  the  good  of  the  children,  rather  than  the  success  of  the 
investigation  in  a  narrower  sense.  Many  helpful  acquaintanceships  were  thus 
begun,  and  many  occasions  for  neighborly  service  offered  themselves. 

Among  the  students  who  have  had  some  share  in  the  work  of  collecting  and 
tabulating  the  material  used  in  this  volume,  special  mention  should  be  made  of  the 
work  of  Estelle  B.  Hunter,  who  was  first  associated  with  the  inquiry  as  a  field  in- 
vestigator, but  upon  whom  we  afterwards  depended  for  the  most  tedious  and  labori- 
ous parts  of  the  work  of  tabulation.  To  Miss  Hunter  credit  should  also  be  given 
for  the  maps  which  accompany  this  volume.  To  Anne  S.  Davis  for  special  work  in 
connection  with  the  obtaining  of  probation  schedules  and  their  tabulation,  and  for 
work  on  the  court  records;  to  Gertrude  E.  Murrell  for  work  on  the  Geneva  records 
and  for  the  difficult  task  of  gathering  family  schedules  for  delinquent  girls;  to 
Jessica  Foster  for  a  great  deal  of  faithful  and  necessarily  tedious  work  in  connection 
with  the  transcription  and  tabulation  of  the  court  records;  and  to  Stella  Packard 
for  a  large  share  of  the  tabulation  of  the  probation  schedules,  especial  credit  should 
be  given.  It  is  a  further  pleasure  to  express  our  appreciation  of  the  work  of  Grace 
P.  Norton  and  Maud  E.  Lavery,  who  have  given  invaluable  assistance  in  preparing 
this  volume  for  the  press. 

14 


DESCRIPTION    OF   THE   INQUIRY 

for  this  more  intensive  study  those  of  the  children  brought  to  court 
during  a  single  year.*  The  year  1903-04  was  selected  for  this  pur- 
pose for  several  reasons.  The  court  had  had  four  years  in  which  to 
develop  its  methods  of  dealing  with  the  child  both  within  and  with- 
out the  court  room.  Four  yearsf  had  elapsed  since  the  children  to 
be  investigated  had  become  wards  of  the  court,  so  that  in  many  in- 
stances the  effect  of  the  guardianship  of  the  court  and  the  care  of 
the  probation  officers  could  be  observed  and  to  a  certain  extent  esti- 
mated. It  was  hoped  that  by  approaching  the  members  of  the 
child's  family  and  by  interviewing  the  probation  officers  who  had 
been  in  intimate  contact  with  the  child,  all  possible  views  of  the 
work  of  the  court  might  be  obtained.  Such  facts  as  pressing  pov- 
erty, unfamiliarity  with  the  needs  of  childhood  in  a  great  city,  the 
cupidity  of  parents  who  preferred  the  purchase  of  a  house  to  the 
education  of  their  children,  family  dissension,  degradation  in  the 
home,  the  possible  shortcomings  of  the  school  system,  the  lack  of 
playgrounds  in  congested  neighborhoods,  were  seen  to  be  of  primary 
importance  in  interpreting  the  offense  of  the  child  and  in  setting 
out  the  problem  to  be  handled  by  the  court.  The  special  relation 
of  the  parents  to  the  court;  their  attitude  towards  the  probation 
officer  who  is,  in  effect,  an  official  foster-parent;  the  extent  of  their 
co-operation  with  the  officer  in  the  past  and  their  suggestions  as  to 
other  possible  sources  of  aid,  were  deemed  of  real  significance.  It 
was  also  thought  that  their  view  of  the  manner  in  which  the  work 
was  being  organized  in  its  early  years  would  be  well  worth  obtaining. 
It  was  of  course  recognized  that  in  some  instances  an  inquiry  in- 
volving a  personal  interview  by  an  outside  investigator  with  the 
parent  or  child  might  interfere  with  the  work  of  the  probation 

*  The  reason  for  selecting  all  the  children  brought  in  during  a  given  period 
arbitrarily  selected,  rather  than  an  arbitrarily  selected  percentage  of  those  coming 
during  the  entire  period,  was  that  if  a  sufficiently  long  period  were  taken — and  a 
year  was  believed  to  be  sufficiently  long — more  completely  representative  facts 
could  be  obtained  than  by  taking  every  tenth,  twentieth,  or  fortieth  child.  For 
example,  the  children  often  come  in  groups,  and  to  have  taken  one  out  of  every 
10,  1 5,  or  20,  might  have  resulted  in  allowing  a  large  proportion  of  the  gangs  to 
escape  attention. 

t  The  year  extended  from  July  i,  1903,  to  June  30,  1904,  and  unless  otherwise 
stated  this  is  the  year  selected  for  all  the  special  investigations. 

It  should  perhaps  be  recalled  that  although  the  court  records  used  in  the 
inquiry  cover  a  period  of  ten  years  the  family  schedules  were  collected  in  1907-08, 
eight  years  after  the  establishment  of  the  court.  The  year  1903-04  was,  therefore, 
at  the  time  when  it  was  selected,  the  middle  year. 

15 


THE    DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND   THE   HOME 

officer.  I  n  all  cases  of  doubt,  therefore,  the  question  as  to  whether  a 
visit  to  the  home  should  be  made  or  not  was  left  to  the  decision  of 
the  officer.* 

Neither  the  Family  Schedule  nor  the  Probation  Schedule 
provided  evidence  as  to  the  child's  own  judgment  upon  his  experi- 
ence or  its  causes.  Nor  did  it  seem  practicable,  since  a  volume 
on  truancy  was  planned  at  the  same  time,  to  make  a  thorough 
study  of  the  child's  educational  opportunities  here.  In  the  hope 
of  securing  some  evidence,  however,  both  as  to  his  educational 
opportunities  and  as  to  his  present  educational  and  industrial 
situation,  a  School  Statement  was  prepared  to  be  filled  out  by  the 
child  whenever  possible.f 

It  was  realized  that  an  attempt  to  discuss  with  the  members 
of  a  family  an  episode  which  might  be  recalled  only  with  chagrin 
was  a  difficult  undertaking.  The  utmost  regard  was  of  course 
shown  for  the  feelings  of  those  approached,  and  while  in  the 
great  majority  of  cases  both  father  and  mother  welcomed  an 
opportunity  to  discuss  the  misfortune  which  had  befallen  their 
child,  in  a  few  instances  objection  was  made,  and  the  investigator 
withdrew.  The  plan  of  approach  in  the  sequence  of  questions 
was  developed  wholly  with  the  desire  of  making  plain  to  the 
parents  the  interest  felt  in  their  individual  child  not  only  as  a 
representative  of  many  others  who  might  be  more  effectively 
protected  in  the  future,  but  as  one  to  whom  the  investigation 
might  possibly  render  a  direct  service.  For  example,  one  practical 
result  of  the  inquiry  was  the  release  from  probation  of  a  consider- 
able number  of  boys  who  were  found  to  be  no  longer  in  need  of 
supervision  but  into  whose  cases  the  court,  because  of  pressure  of 
work,  had  been  unable  to  go. 

A  study  of  the  offenses  for  which  girls  were  brought  to  courtj 

*  The  total  number  of  boys  brought  in  during  the  year  1903-04  was  1087. 
Schedules  were  secured  from  the  families  of  584  of  these  boys.  Of  the  others,  the 
great  majority  had  moved  away  from  Chicago  or  had  moved  into  some  other  section 
of  the  city  so  that  they  could  not  be  traced;  a  considerable  number  were  genuinely 
homeless  boys  who  had  no  families  to  visit  (see  Chapter  V,  p.  93).  In  a  few  cases 
the  boy  had  died;  in  a  few  other  cases,  the  probation  officer  advised  that  no  attempt 
should  be  made  to  visit  the  home  either  because  the  boy  had  married  or  because  for 
some  other  reason  a  visit  seemed  unwise. 

t  For  facsimiles  of  the  schedules  used  in  the  investigation,  see  Appendix  VI, 
P-  333- 

J  See  Chapter  II,  pp.  35-38. 

16 


DESCRIPTION    OF   THE    INQUIRY 

showed  that  the  great  majority  of  them  were  surrounded  by  over- 
whelming perils  besetting  their  virtue,  and  it  became  apparent 
that  the  question  of  the  conditions  which  make  possible  such 
offenses  as  the  court  records  indicated  on  the  part  of  little  girls 
constitutes  a  problem  of  great  importance.  In  the  organized 
vice  of  our  cities  there  may  exist  a  situation  which  is  apparently 
beyond  the  possibility  of  other  forms  of  investigation  than  those 
based  on  careful  records  kept  during  long  periods  of  time  by  duly 
constituted  medical  and  police  authorities.  But  the  things  that 
happen  to  little  thirteen,  fourteen,  or  fifteen-year-old  girls  may,  and 
indeed  must,  be  looked  into;  and  the  surrounding  circumstances 
of  the  abnormal  relationships  entered  into  by  them  are  pressing 
subjects  for  interested  and  sympathetic  inquiry. 

In  spite  of  the  urgent  need  for  such  an  investigation,  peculiar 
difficulties  were  encountered  in  using  the  family  schedule  for  delin- 
quent girls.  Those  who  were  not  fully  informed  as  to  the  purpose 
and  methods  of  the  investigation  feared  lest  the  reputations  of  some 
of  the  girls  might  be  injured  by  the  visits  of  the  investigators. 
Because  of  such  objections  it  became  necessary  to  devise  some 
other  method  of  obtaining  information  regarding  the  homes  and 
families  of  these  delinquent  girls.  The  plan  therefore  of  visiting 
the  homes  of  all  the  girls  brought  into  court  during  the  year 
1903-04,  as  was  done  in  the  case  of  the  boys,  was  abandoned. 

A  source  of  information  which  was  believed  to  be  free  from 
any  objection,  was  the  State  Training  School  for  Girls.  Here,  it 
was  hoped,  the  histories  of  the  girls  who  were  still  in  the  institution 
might  be  obtained  and  visits  made  to  the  homes  from  which  they 
had  been  committed,  without  the  slightest  fear  that  their  reputa- 
tions would  suffer  by  the  inquiry.  With  the  consent  of  the  superin- 
tendent of  the  school,  an  investigator  was  admitted  to  residence  and 
allowed  to  secure  all  possible  data  from  the  records,  besides  being 
given  the  opportunity  of  making  the  acquaintance  of  the  girls  and 
of  learning  as  much  as  was  possible  of  their  personal  histories.* 

*At  the  time  of  the  investigation  there  were  361  girls  in  the  institution. 
These  girls  had,  of  course,  been  committed  at  different  times  and  from  different 
parts  of  the  state.  One  hundred  and  eighty-five  were  from  Cook  County  (Chicago) 
and  176  were  committed  from  other  counties.  Schedules  were  obtained  relating  to 
the  delinquency  of  all  these  girls,  but  family  schedules  were  secured  for  only  1 57 
Chicago  girls. 

17 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 

The  relationship  established  between  the  investigator  and 
the  girls  was  in  most  instances  a  pleasant  one,  and  a  further 
inquiry  into  'their  home  surroundings  became  possible.  Although 
the  investigator  endeavored  to  interview  all  the  girls  in  the  insti- 
tution, no  attempt  was  made  to  visit  any  homes  outside  of  Chicago. 
Family  schedules  were  secured  for  157  Chicago  girls.  Since  these 
covered  a  group  which  was  not  only  special  but  very  small,  the  data 
are  not  presented  in  tables  as  comparable  with  the  data  obtained 
from  the  boys'  schedules. 

From  the  beginning  it  was  understood  that,  in  an  inquiry 
like  this,  it  would  be  impossible  to  obtain  an  adequate  idea  of  the 
relation  between  delinquency  and  any  subnormal  or  abnormal 
physical  or  mental  conditions.*  The  family  schedules,  however, 
furnished  a  considerable  number  of  cases  in  which  mental  weakness 
was  suggested  as  the  explanation  of  the  child's  offense;  cases, 
for  example,  in  which  according  to  the  mother's  statement  the 
boy  was  "weak  in  the  head"  or  "silly"  or  "weak-minded,"  or 
in  which  the  probation  officer  designated  him  as  "mentally  defi- 
cient." Such  cases  furnish  the  basis  of  a  claim  for  much  greater 
care  in  the  selection  and  training  of  abnormal  and  subnormal 
children  by  the  schools  and  by  such  other  agencies  as  may  reach 
them  in  time  to  save  them  and  their  families  the  pain  and  humili- 
ation of  being  summoned  to  court  on  a  delinquency  charge. 

While  an  attempt  has  been  made  to  utilize  the  most  service- 
able methods  of  presenting  the  material  gathered,  it  should  perhaps 
be  explained  that  those  who  have  had  the  inquiry  in  charge  have 
realized  constantly  that  the  most  important  considerations  could 
not  be  reduced  to  percentages,  and  a  brief  summary  of  the  facts 
Jn  the  case  of  each  child  for  whom  reasonably  complete  data  were 
obtained  was,  therefore,  prepared  in  the  form,  not  of  a  "family 
monograph,"  but  of  a  brief  "family  paragraph."  Constant 
reference  is  made  to  these  paragraphs  in  the  following  chapters, 
and  while  the  publication  of  the  entire  number  was  impossible, 
they  seemed  so  full  of  interest  and  significance  that  a  considerable 

*  This  problem  can  be  dealt  with  only  by  the  psychological  and  medical 
expert,  and  the  need  of  such  expert  treatment  has  since  been  met  by  the  establish- 
ment in  Chicago  of  a  Juvenile  Psychopathic  Institute  that  is  endowed  for  a  study 
of  this  problem,  which  is  planned  to  cover  a  period  of  five  years.  See  note  in  the 
Introduction,  p.  5. 

18 


DESCRIPTION    OF   THE    INQUIRY 

number  of  those  in  which  the  information  was  most  complete  or 
illuminating  will  be  found  in  appendices  to  this  volume.* 

And,  finally,  before  passing  on  to  a  presentation  of  the 
statistical  material  and  a  discussion  of  the  results  of  the  inquiry,  it 
seems  necessary  that  some  further  word  should  be  said  about  the 
juvenile  court  itself,  which  will  make  more  clear  to  the  reader 
the  essential  nature  of  the  problem  to  be  set  forth  in  the  following 
chapters.  It  has  already  been  pointed  out  that  the  present 
volume  deals  with  the  delinquent  child  in  his  relation  to  the  home 
and  family  surroundings,  and  that  no  attempt  will  be  made  here 
to  discuss  the  considerations  which  led  to  the  establishment  of  a 
court  for  offending  children.  The  investigation  has  been  rather 
a  study  of  the  difficulties  presented  to  the  modern  industrial  and 
commercial  city  by  the  presence  of  childhood  and  the  "spirit  of 
youth"  in  its  crowded  tenement  districts.  This  problem  as  it 
presents  itself  to  the  court  is  that  of  discovering  how  far  it  may 
be  safe  to  leave  the  children  brought  before  it  under  supervision 
in  their  old  surroundings,  or  how  far  the  conditions  from  which 
they  have  come  as  delinquent  boys  and  girls  are  irremediable  and 
necessitate  their  removal  to  new  conditions.  It  may  appear  that 
one  service,  if  not  the  great  service,  of  the  juvenile  court  is  that 
of  laying  bare  such  needs  of  the  young  as  have  not  been  met  and 
of  making  plain  the  consequences  to  the  individual  child,  and 
to  the  group  in  which  the  child  is  the  most  important  member, 
of  the  failure  to  meet  those  needs. 

In  undertaking  to  supervise  and  to  standardize  the  care  of 
children  within  the  family  group,  or,  when  separation  from  the 
family  is  found  necessary,  without  the  family  group,  the  court 
undertakes  as  difficult  a  task  as  has  ever  been  attempted  by  the 
community  through  any  agent.  To  perform  this  task  adequately 
there  is  required  a  clear  understanding  of  the  principles  underlying 
sound  family  life;  a  familiarity  with  the  various  ideals  of  family 
relationship  dominant  among  the  different  national  groups;  the 
ability  to  distinguish  between  the  conditions  resulting  from  poverty 
and  misfortune  and  those  which  are  the  outcome  of  degraded  and 
immoral  living;  the  willingness  to  make  use  of  all  co-operating 

*  Appendix  IV,  p.  267,  contains  the  family  paragraphs  for  100  boys,  and 
Appendix  V,  p.  314,  the  histories  of  50  girls. 

19 


THE    DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND   THE    HOME 

agencies;  the  patience  necessary  to  devise  and  execute  a  wise 
and  well  thought  out  plan  looking  toward  the  saving  of  the  child — 
with  his  family,  if  possible;  without,  and  sometimes  in  spite  of, 
his  natural  guardians,  if  necessary.  Great  wisdom,  intelligence, 
patience,  devotion,  and  tact  are  evidently  required  of  the  court 
and  its  agents.  Careful  administrative  methods  must  be  devel- 
oped, while  the  largest  flexibility  must  be  permitted  in  dealing 
with  the  families  of  children  who  have  come  under  its  guardian- 
ship. 

Obviously  such  delicate  and  important  machinery  can  be 
perfected  only  after  a  considerable  time;  and  not  until  experi- 
ments, perhaps  marked  often  by  failure,  have  been  tried  again 
and  again,  can  the  best  method  be  finally  selected.  The  court 
and  its  agents  will  inevitably  be  awkward  at  first  as  they  are  called 
upon  to  deal  with  new  and  unfamiliar  situations.  Moreover, 
from  time  to  time  as  new  situations  develop  and  new  tasks  present 
themselves,  the  present  resources  of  the  court  will  appear  to  be 
pitifully  inadequate.  But  it  is  only  as  the  court  tries  to  make 
full  use  of  its  opportunities  that  its  lack  of  equipment  becomes 
evident.  And  this  evidence  of  poor  equipment  is,  therefore,  only 
an  evidence  of  better  endeavor. 

In  the  following  pages,  then,  may  be  expected  evidences  of 
the  court's  newness;  of  its  need  of  wisdom  based  upon  longer 
experience;  of  its  lack  of  adequate  equipment  for  its  task.  As 
the  wrongs  to  children  often  take  on  hideous  shapes,  much  that 
is  painful  and  revolting  must  be  faced  when  the  foul  conditions 
out  of  which  delinquent  children  sometimes  come  are  uncovered; 
and  there  must  be  expected  descriptions  of  degrading  situations, 
too  often  deliberately  overlooked;  detailed  accounts  of  the  effects 
upon  the  family  group  of  misfortune,  incompetence,  and  lack  of 
intelligence;  as  well  as  the  setting  forth  of  the  simple  inability  to 
meet  alone,  under  present-day  conditions,  the  requirements  and 
responsibilities  of  family  life. 


20 


CHAPTER  II 


THE    WARDS    OF    THE    COURT 

s 

OF  first  importance  in  this  study  is  the  question:  Who  are 
the  delinquent  wards  of  the  court?    The  number  of  chil- 
dren who  are  or  have  been  under  its  supervision,  their 
ages  and  their  offenses,  are  facts  which  must  be  ascertained  as  a 
necessary  preliminary  to  any  discussion  of  the  relation  of  the 
juvenile  court  to  the  delinquent  children  under  its  care.      The 
following  table  shows  the  number  of  delinquent  children  brought 
to  court  each  year  during  the  first  ten  years  of  its  existence. 

TABLE    I. — NUMBER  OF  DELINQUENT  BOYS  AND  GIRLS  BROUGHT  TO 
COURT  EACH  YEAR  FROM  JULY    I,    1899,  TO  JUNE  30,    IQCK) 


NUMBER  OF  CHILDREN 

Year 

Boys 

Girls 

Total 

1899-1900 

1350 

116 

1466 

1900-1901 

1093 

158 

1251 

1901-1902 

!  IO5 

'77 

1282 

1902-1903 

1152 

273 

1425 

1903-1904 

-fcSy^ 

229 

1316 

1904-1905 

987 

3'7 

1304 

1905-1906 

1571 

4i5 

1986 

1906-1907 

1180 

398 

1578 

1907-1908 

930 

321 

1251 

1908-1909 

958 

366 

1324 

Total       . 

11,413 

2770 

14.183 

According  to  this  table  the  number  of  children  brought  to 
court  reached  a  high  water  mark  in  1905-06.  But  there  had  not 
been  a  steady  increase  each  year  up  to  this  point  nor  was  there 
a  steady  decline  in  the  years  following.  A  disproportionately 
large  number  of  children  seem  to  have  been  brought  in  during  the 
first  year  of  the  court,  a  circumstance  explained  no  doubt  in  part 
3  21 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND   THE    HOME 

by  the  eager  hopes  which  centered  upon  the  new  method  of  treat- 
ment for  delinquent  children.  The  number  declined  during  the 
two  following  years,  increased  substantially  during  the  fourth  year, 
declined  again  in  the  fifth  and  sixth  years,  and  increased  very 
markedly  during  the  seventh  year  because  of  a  change  in  the  law 
which  will  be  explained  later.  This  increase  was  not  maintained, 
however,  and  the  number  fell  off  during  the  next  year  and  declined 
again  in  the  following  year,  so  that  the  number  of  children  brought 
in  during  the  ninth  year  exactly  equalled  the  number  brought  in 
during  the  second  year;  and  although  there  was  a  slight  increase 
during  the  tenth  year,  the  total  number  of  children  brought  in 
during  this  last  year  of  the  decade  was  smaller  by  142  than  the 
number  brought  in  during  the  first  year  of  the  court's  existence. 
While  it  is  impossible  to  account  for  all  these  fluctuations 
in  the  number  of  children  brought  to  court  from  year  to  year, 
some  of  the  changes  are  not  difficult  to  explain.  The  decline  after 
the  first  year  was  due  in  part  to  the  establishment  of  the  Chicago 
Parental  School  for  truant  boys,  which  was  opened  in  1901  by  the 
board  of  education  and  which  had  been  authorized  by  the  legisla- 
ture two  years  earlier.  During  the  first  year  of  the  court  there  was 
no  special  institution  for  the  care  of  truants,  and  it  was  necessary  to 
bring  in  as  delinquent  and  send  to  delinquent  institutions  all  boys 
who  were  seriously  truant.  The  parental  school  was  only  for  boys; 
and  no  similar  provision  was  made  for  truant  girls.  The  table 
shows  that  the  number  of  girls  increased  slightly  during  the  second 
and  third  years  and,  with  the  number  of  boys,  substantially  during 
the  fourth  year.  This  increase  in  the  number  of  delinquent  girls, 
however,  had  no  connection  with  the  failure  to  provide  for  truant 
girls;  it  was  due  in  part  at  least  to  the  growing  knowledge  of  condi- 
tions responsible  for  delinquency  among  girls  and  to  increasing  skill 
on  the  part  of  the  officers  of  the  court  in  seeking  out  girls  who  had 
fallen  under  the  influence  of  these  conditions.  The  decline  during 
the  fifth  year  affected  both  boys  and  girls,  but  in  the  sixth  year  the 
decline  was  due  to  a  falling  off  in  the  number  of  boys  alone.  The 
number  of  girls  had  increased  during  the  latter  year  from  229  to 

317. 

The  increase  in  the  number  both  of  girls  and  of  boys,  but  es- 
pecially marked  in  the  case  of  boys,  during  the  seventh  year  (1905- 

22 


THE   WARDS   OF  THE   COURT 

06)  is  directly  traceable  to  the  change  in  the  juvenile  court  law 
which  was  made  in  1905,  and  which  extended  the  juvenile  court  age 
to  seventeen  for  boys  and  eighteen  for  girls.  Before  this  time  only 
children  under  sixteen  years  of  age  could  become  wards  of  the  court, 
and  this  change  in  the  law  was  responsible,  as  the  following  tables 
show,  for  an  increase  in  the  number  of  older  children  brought  in  after 
this  time.  A  study  of  these  tables,  however,  which  give  the  ages  of 
the  children  brought  in  each  year,  makes  it  clear  that  the  increase 
of  59  per  cent  in  the  number  of  boys  during  this  year,  an  increase 
which  seems  to  have  been  general  in  all  ages,  was  by  no  means 
due  entirely  to  the  change  in  the  law;  for  the  influx  of  sixteen- 
year-old  boys  does  not  account  for  more  than  half  of  the  in- 
crease. 

A  further  explanation  seems  to  be  found  in  the  feeling  of 
special  confidence  in  the  judge  then  sitting*  and  a  growing  feeling 
of  dependence  upon  the  court.  A  common  belief  seems  to  have 
been  spreading  through  the  community  that  any  child,  more 
especially  any  boy,  whose  conduct  demanded  supervision  or 

*  It  seems  important  at  the  beginning  of  this  study  to  place  certain  facts 
regarding  the  personnel  of  the  court  at  the  service  of  the  reader.  During  the  first 
five  years  of  the  court's  existence,  that  is,  from  July  5,  1899,  to  June  30,  1904, 
Richard  S.  Tuthill  was  the  presiding  judge.  During  the  spring  of  1904,  Judge 
Julian  W.  Mack  assisted  Judge  Tuthill  and  later  became  Judge  Tuthill's  successor, 
sitting  until  June  30,  1907,  when  Judge  Tuthill  was  returned  to  the  court.  He  sat 
until  September,  1908  and  was  succeeded  by  Judge  Merritt  W.  Pinckney. 

Timothy  D.  Hurley  was  chief  probation  officer  from  the  time  of  the  court's 
establishment  until  January,  1904.  He  was  succeeded  by  J.  J.  McManaman,  who 
served  during  the  year  1905.  Henry  W.  Thurston  served  from  January  i,  1906, 
until  September  30,  1908,  and  was  succeeded  by  John  H.  Witter. 

Until  the  beginning  of  1905,  the  staff  of  probation  officers  consisted  of  six 
policemen  in  plain  clothes,  assigned  to  juvenile  court  duty,  36  volunteer  workers, 
14  agents  of  societies  interested  in  the  care  of  children,  21  officers  of  the  Compul- 
sory Education  Department,  and  six  probation  officers  maintained  by  philan- 
thropic organizations  interested  in  the  establishment  of  the  court.  The  expense 
of  a  paid  staff  was  assumed  by  the  county  at  the  beginning  of  1905,  and  since  that 
time  there  has  been  a  staff  of  37  probation  officers  in  addition  to  30  officers  from 
the  police  department  and  a  few  volunteers. 

It  may  also  be  of  interest  to  know  that  during  the  first  five  years  the  court 
sat  in  the  county  building.  For  two  years  a  temporary  building  was  occupied,  and 
the  court  was  then  moved  (August  7,  1907)  into  the  beautiful  court  building  which 
includes  a  detention  home  administered  by  county  officials  and  a  school  conducted 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Chicago  Board  of  Education.  See  Thurston,  Henry  W.: 
Ten  Years  of  the  Juvenile  Court  of  Chicago.  Tbe  Survey,  Vol.  XXIII,  pp.  656- 
666  (Feb.  5,  1910).  See  especially  p.  657,  "A  Corps  of  Probation  Officers"  and 
pp.  661-664,  "Some  Successes  Gained." 

23 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 


TABLE  2. — DELINQUENT  BOYS  BROUGHT  TO  COURT  EACH  YEAR  FROM  JULY 
I,  1899,  TO  JUNE  30,  1909.   NUMBERS  AND  PERCENTAGES. BY  AGE 


Age 

NUMBER  OF  BOYS  BROUGHT  TO  COURT  DURING  THE  YEAR 

Total 

Per 
Cent 

1899- 
1900 

1900- 
1901 

1901- 
1902 

1902- 
1903 

1903- 
1904 

1904- 
1905 

1905- 
1906 

1906- 
1907 

1907- 
1908 

1908- 
1909 

I  : 

9 

10 

n 

12 

13 
14 

11  : 

17 

8 

37 
103 

«45 
207 
209 
274 
298 
27 

n 

14 
48 

83 
142 

145 
152 
225 
251 
9 

9 
10 

4' 
89 
98 
»75 
154 
230 
282 
8 

6 

12 

58 
87 
124 

153 

'74 
222 
258 

35 
I 
I 

21 

I 

30 

75 

9I 
136 

193 
253 
267 

21 
I 
I 

6 

5 
ii 

38 
78 
94 
153 
162 
1  86 
220 
'9 

2 
19 

8 

20 

54 
82 
140 
208 
218 
238 
286 
290 
6 

21 

13 
34 

47 

112 
124 
I63 

1  66 
229 
264 
4 

24 

2 

4 
18 

43 
70 

99 
109 

159 
187 
215 

5 
I 

18 

2 

7 
32 
70 

85 
132 
166 

23* 
206 

7 
13 

49a 

IOO 

365 
719 
1090 
1485 
1666 

21  19 
2516 
1094 
26 

4 
1  80 

0.4 
0.9 

3-2 

6i 

9.6 
13.0 
14.6 
18.6 

22.  0 

9.6 

0.2 
O.O 

1.6 

.8  : 

Not  re- 
ported 

I 

36 

13 

9 

Total 

1350 

1093 

1105 

1152 

1087 

987 

157' 

1180 

930 

958 

11,413 

IOO.O 

a  Of  these  49  children,  45  were  seven  years  old,  3  were  six,  and  i  was  four. 

TABLE  3. — DELINQUENTGIRLS  BROUGHT  TO  COURT  EACH  YEAR  FROM  JULY 
I,   1899,  TO  JUNE  30,   1909.      NUMBERS  AND  PERCENTAGES. — BY  AGE 


NUMBER  OF  GIRLS  BROUGHT  TO  COURT  DURING  THE  YEAR 

r>-- 

Age 

1899- 

1900- 

1901- 

1902- 

1903-1904- 

1905- 

1906- 

1907- 

1908- 

Total 

rer 
Cent 

1900 

1901 

1902 

1903 

1904 

1905 

1906 

1907 

1908 

1909 

I      ' 

3 

i 

i 

I 

.  , 

6a 

0.2 

8 

i 

4 

5 

i 

2 

'3 

0.5 

9      • 

I 

4 

3 

i 

7 

4 

4 

i 

2 

27 

0.9 

10 

2 

5 

7 

10 

3 

4 

7 

5 

3 

5 

5' 

1.8 

n 

3 

8 

3 

9 

5 

12 

10 

5 

7 

8 

70 

2.5 

12 

6 

6 

7 

17 

9 

'7 

20 

16 

n 

'3 

122 

4-4 

13         • 

17 

15 

'9 

25 

21 

27 

30 

16 

9 

23 

2O2 

7-3 

14        . 

3i 

33 

35 

3' 

41 

48 

66 

58 

34 

53 

430 

'5-5 

15         • 

37 

63 

67 

73 

56 

86 

98 

76 

77 

94 

727 

26.3 

16      . 

'3 

'3 

24 

7> 

60 

60 

99 

'34 

94 

90 

658 

23.8 

17 

i 

5 

1  1 

23 

28 

46 

65 

72 

77 

64 

392 

14.2 

18 

2 

i 

7 

I 

i 

I 

2 

'5 

0.5 

Not  re- 

ported 

3 

3 

2 

3 

4 

5 

10 

9 

6 

12 

57 

2.1 

Total 

116 

158 

177 

273 

229 

3'7 

4'5 

398 

321 

366 

2770 

IOO.O 

a  Of  these  6  children,  2  were  seven  years  old,  3  were  six,  and  i  was  five. 

24 


THE   WARDS   OF  THE   COURT 

discipline  would  be  benefited  by  coming  under  the  care  of  the 
court  and  the  influence  of  the  judge.  The  error  of  this  view  was, 
of  course,  apparent  to  the  judge,  who  urged  in  every  way  and 
at  every  opportunity  the  adoption  of  preventive  measures,  the 
importance  of  exhausting  other  methods  of  treatment  before 
bringing  the  child  to  court,  and  the  use  of  the  court  only  as  a  last 
resort.  The  very  substantial  decline  in  the  number  of  children 
brought  in  during  the  two  following  years,  a  decline  which  was,  like 
the  increase  during  the  preceding  year,  much  more  marked  in  the 
case  of  boys  than  of  girls,  can  no  doubt  be  attributed  in  large  meas- 
ure to  the  change  of  policy  advocated  by  the  judge.  Although  this 
decline  did  not  continue,  the  increase  during  the  succeeding  year 
was  so  slight  that  it  seems  to  demand  no  special  explanation.  At- 
tention has  already  been  called  to  the  significant  fact  with  regard  to 
the  number  of  children  brought  in  during  this  year, — that  the  num- 
ber was  smaller  than  it  had  been  during  the  first  year  of  the  court's 
existence.  This  was  true  in  spite  of  the  increase  in  population 
during  the  decade  and  in  spite  of  the  change  in  the  law  which  had 
brought  a  larger  number  of  children  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
court. 

The  effect  of  this  change  in  the  law  which  was  made  in  1905 
can  be  better  understood  after  a  study  of  Tables  2  and  3, 
which  show  the  ages  of  the  boys  and  girls  brought  to  court  during 
each  year  of  the  period  studied,  and  which  indicate  a  marked 
increase  in  the  relative  numbers  of  older  children  brought  in 
during  1905-06  and  the  years  following. 

In  1899-1900,  the  first  year  of  the  court,  1 53  boys,  1 1  per  cent 
of  the  total  number,  were  ten  years  old  or  younger;  in  1908-09,  the 
tenth  year  of  the  court,  41  boys,  only  4  per  cent,  were  of  these  ages. 
In  1899-1900,  on  the  other  hand,  326  boys,  only  24  per  cent,  were 
fifteen  or  older,  while  in  1908-09,  45 1  boys,  47  per  cent,  were  fifteen 
or  older.  While  the  change  in  the  law  is  no  doubt  largely  responsi- 
ble for  the  relative  increase  in  the  number  of  older  boys,  the  de- 
crease in  the  number  of  younger  boys  is  certainly  to  be  explained 
in  part  by  a  tendency  to  call  such  young  children  dependent  rather 
than  delinquent.  The  table  for  girls  (Table  3)  shows  a  correspond- 
ing increase  in  the  number  of  older  girls  brought  in  during  the 

25 


THE   DELINQUENT   CHILD   AND   THE   HOME 

latter  part  of  the  decade.  In  1899-1900,  53  girls,  46  per  cent, 
were  fifteen  or  older,  and  in  1908-09  the  number  had  increased  to 
248  girls,  68  per  cent.  The  number  of  girls  ten  years  old  or  younger 
was  of  course  very  small,  3  in  the  first  year  and  9  in  the  last  year  of 
the  decade.  Throughout  the  whole  period  the  number  of  girls 
ten  or  under  was  never  more  than  8  per  cent  of  the  total  number 
brought  in  during  the  year. 


TABLE  4. — DELINQUENT  BOYS  AND  GIRLS  BROUGHT  TO  COURT  DUR- 
ING THE  TEN-YEAR  PERIOD  FROM  JULY  I,  1899,  TO  JUNE  30, 
1909.      TOTALS  AND    PERCENTAGES. — BY  AGE 


A  .* 

NUMBER 

PER( 

IENT 

Age 

Boys 

Girls 

Total 

Boys 

Girls 

7  or  under  .... 
8   
9   

49 

IOO 

365 

7IQ 

6 

13 

27 

El 

55 
i'3 
392 

77O 

0.4 
0.9 

3-2 
63 

0.2 

0.5 
0.9 
i  8 

n    

IOOX) 
1485 

70 

122 

1160 
1607 

9.6 
n.o 

2-5 

4.4 

13    
14   

11:  :   :    :   :   : 

1666 
2119 
2516 
1094 
26 

202*"" 
430 

727. 
658^ 
3Q2 

1868 
2549 

3243 
1752 
418 

14.6 

18.6 

22.O 
9.6 
O.2 

7-3 
'5-5 
26.3 
23.8 

14.2 

18   .      .       .        .       .       . 
Not  reported. 

,8* 

15 

57 

19 
237 

O.O 

1.6 

o-5 

2.1 

Total      .... 

11,413 

2770 

14,  '83 

100.0 

IOO.O 

If  the  ages  of  boys  and  girls  be  examined  together  an  inter- 
esting contrast  will  be  observed.  Table  4,  which  for  convenience 
presents  only  the  totals  from  the  two  preceding  tables,  shows  that 
more  than  two-thirds  of  all  the  delinquent  boys  brought  into 
court  are  from  twelve  to  fifteen  years  of  age.  Relatively  few 
sixteen-year-old  boys  are  brought  in,  and  boys  who  are  seventeen 
or  over  are  not  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  court.  On  the  other 
hand,  a  relatively  large  number  of  girls,  1050,  or  38  per  cent,  are 
brought  in  at  the  ages  of  sixteen  and  seventeen.  This  difference 
is  in  part  due  to  the  fact  that  signs  of  waywardness  in  the  girl  do 

26 


THE   WARDS   OF   THE   COURT 

not  appear  until  she  is  older,  since,  as  later  tables  of  offenses  will 
show,  this  waywardness  almost  invariably  takes  the  form  of  im- 
morality. With  the  boy,  there  is  more  hope  that  he  will  "settle 
down"  when  he  goes  to  work;  with  the  girl,  work  often  means 
the  beginning  of  temptation.  Moreover,  the  treatment  of  the 
court  is  as  yet  less  adapted  to  the  older  boy  than  to  the  younger 
boy,  whereas  for  the  girl  whose  whole  future  life  is  imperiled, 
the  only  hope  is  to  remove  her  entirely  from  influences  that 
threaten  destruction  and  to  place  her  in  an  institution  until  the 
critical  years  are  past. 

Next  in  importance  to  the  question  of  the  age  of  these 
delinquent  children  is  that  of  the  offenses  which  have  been  the 
cause  of  their  being  brought  to  court.  Tables  of  offenses  are 
given  separately  for  boys  and  girls,*  and,  although  the  relative 
numbers  brought  in  on  the  different  charges  do  not  vary  much 
from  year  to  year,  it  has  seemed  best  to  present  the  separate 
totals  for  each  year. 

It  appears  from  Table  5  that  the  offenses  of  more  than  half 
of  the  delinquent  boys  who  were  brought  into  court  during  the 
decade  were  violations  of  the  rights  of  property.  Incorrigibility 
is  the  offense  next  in  importance  to  stealing;  and  these  two  offenses, 
together  with  disorderly  conduct  and  malicious  mischief,  consti- 
tute the  "charges"  upon  which  95  per  cent  of  the  delinquent 
boys  are  brought  into  court.  In  attempting  to  ascertain  -the 
precise  "acts  or  facts"  included  under  these  blanket  terms,  an 
examination  of  the  court  records  showed  that  the  terms  stealing, 
burglary,  larceny,  attempted  burglary,  or  attempted  larceny,  all 
of  which  are  grouped  together  under  stealing,  covered  a  great 
many  different  offenses  connected  with  the  taking  of  property. 
For  example,  the  property  taken  varied  greatly  in  form  and 
value,  from  the  newspaper  at  the  door  to  merchandise  worth 
several  hundred  dollars  from  a  store.  One  hundred  dollars  taken 
from  a  house,  merchandise  from  a  candy  store,  twenty-five  dollars' 
worth  of  wood  from  a  basement,  lead  pipe  cut  from  a  building, 
coal  and  grain  from  cars,  zinc  and  copper  valued  at  $200  from  a 
railroad  shanty,  are  among  the  offenses  classified  under  the  head 
of  stealing  as  involving  a  violation  of  property  rights.  In  order 
*  See  Tables  5  and  7,  pp.  28  and  36. 
27 


THE    DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 

to  understand  more  correctly  the  precise  offense  of  the  boy  who 
is  brought  to  court  for  stealing,  a  more  careful  study  was  made 


TABLE  5. — DELINQUENT  BOYS  BROUGHT  TO  COURT  EACH  YEAR 

FROM  JULY  I,  1899,  TO  JUNE  30,  1909.   NUMBERS  AND 

PERCENTAGES. — BY  OFFENSE 


NUMBER  OF  BOYS  BROUGHT  TO  COURT  DURING 

THE  YEAR 

Offense 

Total 

Per 
Cent 

1899 

1900 

1901 

1902 

1903 

1904 

1905 

1906 

1907 

1908 

-00 

-01 

-02 

-03 

-04 

-05 

-06 

-07 

-08 

-09 

Stealing  a 

645 

528 

522 

596 

555 

549 

80  1 

691 

544 

364 

5795 

50.8 

Incorrigibility  . 

261 

205 

220 

234 

220 

196 

307 

205 

•47 

483 

2478 

21.7 

Disorderly  conduct 

274 

241 

247 

163 

172 

189 

281 

153 

64 

67 

1851 

1  6.2 

Malicious  mischief 

61 

58 

67 

105 

82 

32 

>34 

84 

92 

25 

740 

6.5 

Vagrancy  . 

33 

28 

18 

22 

31 

20 

2o|     31 

53 

9 

265 

2.3 

Immorality 
Dependent  charges  b 

II 
18 

3 

7 

7 

7 

8 

21 

M 

4 

14 
9 

30 
10 

3> 

3 

25 
Q 

35 

2 

178 
90 

1.6 

0.8 

Truancy  c  . 

53 

13 

3 

5 

2 

4 

5 

o 

o 

O 

8s 

0.7 

Miscellaneous      of- 

fenses d 

37 

10 

14 

ID 

'9 

II 

20 

8 

16 

8 

'59 

1.4 

Total  . 

'393 

1093 

1105 

1170 

1099 

1024 

1608 

1206 

950 

993 

11,641 

IO2.O 

Counted  twice  . 

43 

18 

12 

37 

37 

26 

20 

35 

228 

2.0 

Total  . 

1350 

1093 

1105 

1152 

1087 

987 

1571 

1180 

930 

958 

11,413 

IOO.O 

a  All  offenses  which  involve  either  the  taking  or  the  attempt  to  take  property 
are  grouped  together  under  the  term  "stealing"  in  this  table. 

b  These  are  the  charges  referred  to  on  page  12;  e.  g.,  drunkenness  of  parents, 
lack  of  care,  etc.  The  90  boys  brought  in  on  these  charges  should  not  be  confused 
with  the  boys  who  after  having  been  dependent  wards  of  the  court  are  brought  in 
on  bona  fide  delinquent  charges. 

c  The  marked  decrease  after  1900  in  the  number  of  boys  brought  to  court  as 
delinquent  on  a  charge  of  truancy,  is  explained  by  the  fact  that  a  parental  school  for 
truant  boys  was  established  in  1901,  and  after  that  it  was  necessary  only  in  ex- 
ceptional cases  to  commit  them  to  institutions  for  delinquent  boys. 

d  This  total  includes  65  offenses  other  than  those  specified  and  94  offenses 
not  reported. 

of  the  charges  for  the  last  two  years  of  the  period  studied,  and 
Taole  6  was  prepared  to  show  the  kinds  of  stealing  which  were 
most  common  among  these  juvenile  court  boys. 

28 


THE   WARDS  OF   THE   COURT 

TABLE  6. — SPECIFIED  OFFENSE  OF  908  DELINQUENT  BOYS  BROUGHT 
TO  COURT  ON  THE  CHARGE  OF  STEALING,  BETWEEN  JULY  I, 

1907,   AND  JUNE   30,    1909 
Offense  Number  of  Boys 

Stealing  from  railroad 258 

Stealing  money 193 

Stealing  "junk" 134 

Shoplifting 55 

Breaking  into  empty  buildings 54 

Stealing  from  parents 45 

Stealing,  i.  e.,  driving  away,  a  horse,  motor,  or  bicycle       ...       58 

Stealing  candy,  fruit,  gum,  or  tobacco 58 

Stealing  pigeons,  ducks,  chickens,  etc 25 

Stealing  newspapers 19 

Miscellaneous  thefts 9  . 

Total 908 

The  first  two  items  in  this  table,  "stealing  from  the  rail- 
road" and  "stealing  money,"  cover  a  great  variety  of  acts  per- 
formed under  widely  different  conditions,  and  fail  therefore  to 
give  a  very  definite  idea  of  the  child's  real  delinquency.  Comment 
will  be  made  later  upon  "stealing  from  the  railroad"  as  one  of 
the  many  kinds  of  acts  suggested  by  the  proximity  of  a  crowded 
tenement  district  to  unfenced  and  often  inadequately  guarded 
railroad  property.  Stealing  money  cannot  be  reduced  to  definite 
terms,  but  covers  the  taking  of  any  sum,  from  a  small  amount, 
perhaps  appropriated  while  employed  as  a  messenger,  to  sums 
of  considerable  value  taken  from  the  tills  in  shops  and  offices  into 
which  the  boys  have  broken.  Stealing  junk  or  finding  something 
which  can  be  sold  as  junk  is  the  boy's  easiest  way  of  obtaining  spend- 
ing money.  While  this  often  means  only  a  judicious  hunt  through 
alleys  and  garbage  cans,  yet  when  this  hunt  fails,  depredations 
frequently  result.  In  this  way  boys  are  brought  in  for  stealing 
bicycles  and  selling  them  as  junk;  and  still  more  common  is  the 
raid  on  the  empty  house  from  which  the  lead  pipe  can  be  cut  to 
be  sold  as  junk,  or  the  cutting  of  a  telephone  cable  under  the  side- 
walk^  It  should  be  noted,  too,  that  the  empty  house  offers  an 
especially  tempting  field  for  the  exploits  of  the  "gang."  Breaking 
into  empty  buildings  is  closely  related  in  its  adventurous  aspect  to 
"driving  away"  the  horse  or  the  vehicle  left  standing  in  the  street. 
The  taking  of  candy,  gum,  pigeons,  and  similar  articles  of  special 
value  to  the  small  boy,  is  of  course  much  less  serious  than  those 

29 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

acts  described  as  shoplifting,  and  is,  in  fact,  closely  related  to  the 
long  tolerated  privilege  which  the  country  boy  enjoys  of  "swiping" 
melons  and  pumpkins  in  neighboring  gardens.  Without  mini- 
mizing the  dangers  into  which  the  boy  may  be  led,  it  seems  clear 
that  a  considerable  number  of  these  acts  are  not  vicious,  but  are 
performed  in  a  spirit  of  harmless  adventure  and  without  adequate 
realization  of  their  possibly  serious  consequences. 

Passing  on  to  a  description  of  the  other  terms  which  appear 
in  the  table  of  charges,  it  appears  that  "malicious  mischief"  is 
used  in  the  court  records  to  designate  such  offenses  as  destroying 
a  railroad  switch,  throwing  stones  at  a  man  and  calling  him 
obscene  names,  cutting  the  top  of  a  grocery  wagon,  throwing 
stones  at  a  teamster  on  his  wagon,  pulling  up  planks  from  the 
sidewalk,  beating  down  the  door  of  a  house  with  a  hatchet,  "cut- 
ting rope  from  a  flag  pole  and  tying  it  across  the  street  so  that  a 
man  was  knocked  from  his  wheel, "  breaking  into  a  basement  but 
not  stealing  anything,  throwing  stones  at  trains,  setting  fire  to 
barrels  of  crockery  in  a  business  place,  and  other  acts  which 
seem  equally  miscellaneous  and  equally  difficult  to  classify. 

"  Incorrigibility,"  a  word  apparently  coined  of  despair,  is 
used  to  cover  such  misdemeanors  as  loitering  about  the  streets  and 
using  vulgar  language,  receiving  money  embezzled  by  another 
boy  and  running  away  with  it,  refusing  either  to  work  or  to  go  to 
school,  roaming  the  street  late  at  night,  going  upon  the  roof  of  a 
building  and  throwing  stones  at  passers-by,  riding  on  railroad 
trains,  keeping  bad  company,  refusing  to  obey  parents,  and  stay- 
ing away  from  home.  In  many  instances  in  which  the  child  is 
classed  as  incorrigible  or  disorderly,  appeal  is  made  to  the  court 
to  support  a  parental  authority*  which  should  rest  on  early  dis- 

*  For  example,  the  court  records  show  that  during  the  period  1907-09,  65 
boys  had  been  brought  in  for  stealing  from  their  parents  or  for  different  specific 
offenses  (other  than  disobedience)  against  them.  That  is,  while  the  common  charge 
against  the  incorrigible  whose  mother  or  father  brings  him  to  court  is  that  he  "will 
not  obey  his  parents  and  will  not  work,"  or  "will  not  obey  and  go  to  school,"  or 
"loiters  about  the  streets  and  will  not  obey";  in  65  cases,  the  parents  asked  the 
court  to  punish  the  boy  for  some  specific  act  such  as  stealing  money  from  them, 
being  abusive  to  them  or  to  some  other  member  of  the  family,  borrowing  money  in 
the  father's  name,  and  other  similar  offenses.  There  are,  of  course,  cases  in  which 
the  parents  or  relatives  with  whom  the  boy  lives  bring  the  boy  to  court  without  just 
cause  and  ask  to  have  him  sent  to  an  institution  in  order  that  they  may  escape  the 
burden  of  his  support.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say  that  the  court  is  constantly 

30 


THE   WARDS   OF   THE   COURT 

cipline  and  essential  justice;  and  sometimes  the  court  is  asked 
t6  maintain  standards  of  filial  duty  which,  while  possibly  still  in 
accord  with  the  law  of  parental  right,  are  adhered  to  with  difficulty 
where  the  industrial  organization  of  which  the  child  becomes  a 
part  deals  with  children  as  individuals  and  not  as  members  of 
the  family  group.*  Nor  can  one  escape  the  opinion,  when  the 
child  is  young  and  the  parents  confess  or  complain  that  they  cannot 
control  him,  that  in  the  absence  of  such  mitigating  circumstances 
as  will  be  later  referred  to,  they,  not  he,  deserve  to  be  disciplined 
and  possibly  placed  on  probation  as  delinquent  parents. 

The  offense  described  as  "disorderly  conduct"  in  the  court 
records  covers  such  acts  as  climbing  the  structures  of  the  elevated 
railroad,  starting  a  fight  with  another  boy  on  a  street  car,  loafing 
on  the  street  corner,  shooting  bullets  from  a  revolver  on  the  street 
the  day  before  the  Fourth,  "attempting  to  strike  his  mother  and 
threatening  to  shoot  his  brother  for  interfering,  besides  smashing 
a  window,"  assaulting  a  boy  and  creating  a  disturbance,  earning 
money  and  then  running  away  and  spending  it,  staying  away  from 
home  five  weeks  without  parents'  consent,  wandering  about  down- 
town streets  without  lawful  occupation,  being  afraid  to  go  home, 
"  refusing  to  obey  his  mother,  giving  her  only  what  he  pleases  from 
his  pay,  and  when  she  refuses  him  spending  money,  taking  it 
from  her  by  force, "  throwing  stones  at  the  actors  in  a  West  Side 
music  hall,  calling  a  neighbor  names,  and  a  large  number  of  other 
offenses  varying  greatly  in  seriousness  of  character. 

And,  finally,  among  the  delinquent  wards  of  the  court  there 
are  the  children  charged  with  "  vagrancy,"  or  running  away.  The 
vagrant  child  is  one  who  stays  away  from  home  without  the 
mother's  consent,  sleeps  under  the  station  platform  several  nights, 
or  sleeps  in  a  wagon;  he  may  also  be  found  sleeping  in  a  hallway, 

on  guard  against  this  danger  and  ready  to  deal  severely  with  those  who  attempt  to 
use  it  in  this  way. 

*  The  right  of  the  parents  to  the  child's  wages  and  its  bearing  on  delinquency 
is  discussed  in  a  later  chapter.  Incidentally,  it  may  be  said,  that  the  exercise  of 
the  parental  right  to  claim  the  child's  wages  is  of  very  doubtful  industrial  value, 
since  it  takes  from  the  employer  an  effective  means  of  inducing  the  child,  through  a 
prospective  increase,  to  improve  his  industrial  efficiency.  There  may  be  slight  in- 
fluence toward  better  work  in  the  offer  of  an  added  dollar  a  week,  if  the  dollar  goes 
wholly  toward  meeting  the  many  unsatisfied  needs  of  a  family  such  as  is  represented 
by  the  child  worker. 

31 


in  a  basement,  or  in  an  empty  house  several  nights,  and  then  is 
too  afraid  of  his  father's  whipping  to  go  home.  While  an  offense  of 
this  character  is  most  frequently  called -"vagrancy"  in  the  court 
records,  it  may  also  constitute  a  "disorderly  conduct"  charge,  or 
even  incorrigibility. 

It  should  be  noted  with  regard  to  the  act  of  misconduct 
recorded  against  the  child  in  court,  that  the  terms  used  are  often 
quite  misleading,  for  it  is  not  at  all  uncommon  to  find  a  series  of 
different  terms  applied  to  precisely  the  same  act.  For  example, 
in  the  case  of  four  boys  who  broke  a  till  and  divided  the  money 
found  in  it,  the  ten-year-old  boy  who  broke  the  till  was  charged 
with  larceny,  two  of  those  who  received  a  share  of  the  spoil  were 
called  incorrigible  (they  were  ten  and  thirteen)  while  the  fourth 
(a  fourteen-year-old  boy)  was  called  disorderly.  The  disposition, 
however,  was  the«  same  in  each  case;  all  four  boys  were  put  on 
probation. 

This  detailed  statement  of  the  offenses  charged  against  the 
delinquent  boys  of  the  court  is  necessarily  brief,  for,  although 
their  acts  may  be  classified  into  a  small  number  of  groups,  there 
is  found  throughout  the  eleven  thousand  and  more  cases  an  end- 
less variety  in  the  actual  offenses  committed.  It  is  believed,  how- 
ever, that  a  sufficient  number  of  examples  has  been  given  to  show 
the  nature  of  the  charge  that  has  brought  the  dishonest  or  incor- 
rigible or  disorderly  or  vagrant  boy  into  court.*  One  other  point 
should  be  noticed  in  connection  with  this  discussion  of  offenses — the 
responsibility  of  the  railroads  for  delinquency  among  boys.  Care- 
ful analysis  of  the  charges  against  the  boys  brought  in  during  the 
last  two  years  of  the  period  studied  showed  that  326  were  charged 
with  various  offenses  against  the  railroads,  48  were  brought  in 
for  stealing  grain,  56  for  stealing  fuel,  1 54  for  taking  various  forms 
of  merchandise  from  freight  cars,  and  68  for  such  miscellaneous 
offenses  as  loitering  on  the  railroad  tracks,  throwing  a  switch,  de- 
stroying a  switch,  throwing  stones  at  trains,  setting  fire  to  freight 
cars,  breaking  into  cars,  putting  cartridges  on  the  tracks,  breaking 
signal  lights,  tearing  down  a  fence  in  a  railroad  yard,  loafing  in  the 
railroad  station,  "flipping  trains,"  and  a  few  other  similar  charges. 

*  For  a  list  of  cases  which  gives  not  only  the  court  charges  but  the  actual 
offenses  of  the  boys,  see  Note  i  at  end  of  this  chapter,  p.  48. 

32 


THE   WARDS   OF   THE   COURT 

Getting  on  and  off  trains  while  they  are  in  motion  becomes 
a  fine  art,  denoted  by  the  term  "flipping,"  a  word  now  well  estab- 
lished in  the  vocabulary  of  delinquency.  It  is  an  art  practiced 
by  boys  and  girls  alike  in  neighborhoods  in  which  parallel  bars 
are  scarce,  and  girls  with  long  and  eager  legs  may  become  adept 
at  it.  In  the  process  of  acquiring  the  art,  however,  the  child 
endangers  his  own  life  and  limb  and  incidentally  threatens  an 
inconvenient  accident  on  railroad  property.  There  is  no  question 
of  the  serious  danger  involved  in  using  railroad  tracks  as  a  public 
playground,  and  the  community  has  the  right  to  demand  that, 
in  the  interests  of  safety,  railroad  tracks  should  be  elevated, 
fenced,  and  adequately  guarded.  The  process  of  elevating  the 
tracks  has  gone  on  slowly  in  Chicago,  and  the  court  records  indi- 
cate not  only  that  the  tracks  are  not  properly  guarded,  but  that 
there  is  no  settled  policy  on  the  part  of  the  roads  in  regard  to  the 
children  who  are  tempted  by  the  presence  of  this  unguarded  prop- 
erty in  their  neighborhood.  Great  laxity  at  one  time  is  followed 
by  undue  severity  at  another,  and  the  effect  cannot  fail  to  be  de- 
moralizing. After  a  period  of  indifference,  a  change  of  policy  is  in- 
augurated which  means  the  arrest  of  many  restless  boys  in  the 
neighborhood.  With  reference  to  the  irregular  attempts  at  dis- 
cipline on  the  part  of  railroad  guards,  comments  by  probation 

officers  are  sometimes  illuminating;  as,  "  J was  not  really  a 

delinquent;  he  was  merely  one  of  the  large  number  of  boys  brought 
in  from district  when  the  railroad  detectives  suddenly  deter- 
mined to  enforce  the  law." 

One  factor  of  obvious  importance  which  presents  itself  here 
is  the  problem  of  the  gang,  for  many  of  these  delinquent  boys 
have  offended  in  groups.  Upon  this  subject  the  court  records 
throw  very  little  light.  They  show  that  the  word  "gang"  is  used 
without  any  definite  significance  to  describe  combinations  of 
many  kinds,  varying  from  the  loosely  formed  or  even  accidental 
group  to  the  well  knit  organization.  The  so-called  gang  also 
varies  greatly  in  size,  and  the  records  seldom  give  any  definite 
idea  either  of  its  real  size  or  of  its  personnel. 

Sometimes  the  gang  is  cosmopolitan  in  membership  and 
includes  boys  of  several  different  nationalities,  but  more  often 
its  members  are  of  the  same  nationality,  or  the  same  race,  prob- 

33 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

ably  because  from  the  same  neighborhood.  Thus,  eight  Polish 
boys  are  brought  in  for  placing  ties  across  the  railroad  tracks; 
five  Bohemians  are  caught  breaking  into  a  house;  and  three 
little  colored  boys  aged  nine,  ten,  and  eleven  are  brought  in  for 
making  a  raid  on  a  candy  store.  The  gang  is  sometimes  organized 
under  the  rule  of  a  "king"  who  is  usually  described  by  resentful 
mothers,  whose  boys  are  suffering  from  his  control,  as  a  "big, 
bullying  boy  who  tries  to  run  everybody  on  the  street." 

The  presence  of  a  gang  in  any  neighborhood  is  always 
offered  as  an  adequate  explanation  of  the  delinquency  of  any  one 
of  its  members;  and  it  becomes  customary  for  the  mother  of  every 
member  to  blame  her  own  boy's  badness  upon  the  badness  of 
the  other  mothers'  sons.  Sometimes,  however,  the  blame  can  be 
fairly  well  determined.  In  the  case  of  one  gang  nearly  all  the  boys 
came  from  good  homes  and  fairly  favorable  conditions  and  every 
mother  blamed  the  "bad  boy"  of  the  neighborhood;  and  all  the 
boys  found  one  appearance  in  court  quite  enough  except  one 
poor  fellow  who  is  now  in  the  state  penitentiary  serving  a  life 
sentence.  This  boy  had  no  mother  and  only  a  nine-year-old 
sister  to  care  for  him;  his  father  beat  him,  and  his  home  was  so 
degraded  that  he  had  never  had  a  chance  to  do  well.  He  had  been 
the  "king  of  the  gang"  in  the  neighborhood,  had  persistently 
avoided  going  to  school,  and  did  not  learn  to  read  until  after  he 
went  to  Joliet.  The  resentment  of  the  mothers  of  the  other  boys 
in  this  instance  was  evidently  justified. 

The  gang  is  a  local  institution,*  and  is  usually  designated 
by  the  name  of  a  street,  or  a  neighborhood,  or  a  district;  as,  the 
Halsted  Street  gang,  or  the  Englewood  gang.  It  does  not  mi- 
grate from  its  habitat,  and  so  there  is  always  the  possibility  of 

*  The  daily  newspapers  recently  contained  a  "gang"  story  so  significant  as 
to  be  worthy  of  record.  In  the  history  of  the  life  of  Eddie  Fay,  "king  of  burglars," 
on  the  occasion  of  his  recent  capture,  the  following  facts  were  given  among  others: 
"Fay  was  born  in  1876  at  Thirty-third  and  Wallace  Streets,  where  his  father,  now 
dead,  ran  a  saloon.  He  attended  the  Healy  school  at  Thirty-first  and  Wallace 
Streets.  The  boys  at  the  school  were  divided  into  two  crowds,  the  Twenty-ninth 
Street  gang  and  the  Thirty-first  Street  gang.  With  Fay  in  the  latter  gang  were 
Willie  Yaeger,  who  later  shot  a  man  in  the  Twenty-second  Street  district;  Pat 
Flaherty,  who  was  implicated  with  Fay  in  the  Superior  robbery;  Micky  Gleason, 
now  serving  a  ten-year  sentence  in  Munich,  Germany,  for  bank  robbery;  Vincent 
Shevlin,  serving  a  term  for  manslaughter  in  New  Jersey;  Johnny  Shevlin,  who  is 
also  '  wanted/  and  others." 

34 


THE   WARDS   OF   THE   COURT 

escaping  from  its  influence  and  control  by  flight.  A  frequent 
remark  made  to  the  investigator  by  the  mother  of  a  delinquent 
boy  who  had  come  back  to  the  fold  was,  "  after  he  was  in  court  we 
moved  to  a  new  neighborhood  to  get  him  away  from  the  gang, 
and  he  settled  down  all  right." 

It  is  clear  that  the  larger  offenses  of  burglary  and  larceny 
and  the  other  more  serious  depredations  are  committed  by  boys 
in  groups,  but  often  the  purely  mischievous  acts  are  likewise 
manifestations  of  the  spirit  of  the  gang.  In  fact,  there  is  scarcely 
a  type  of  delinquent  boy  who  is  not  associated  with  others 
in  his  wrongdoing.  The  little  vagrant  may  sometimes  sleep 
alone,  but  we  are  sure  that  he  does  not  pass  the  days  alone.  The 
twelve-year-old  beggars  may  beg  alone,  but  the  begging  child  is 
really  dependent  rather  than  delinquent.  The  boy  who  is  brought 
in  because  he  will  not  give  in  all  his  wages  undoubtedly  wants  to 
spend  them  in  social  ways.  The  impression  made  by  a  study  of 
the  actual  reasons  for  bringing  boys  into  court  is  that  the  delin- 
quency is  in  many  instances  distinctly  one  of  a  social  character 
and  is  due  to  the  organization  of  a  little  group  whose  purpose 
may  be  harmless  enough  but  whose  social  effort  is  misdirected. 

Turning  from  the  offenses  of  the  delinquent  boy  to  the 
question  of  the  delinquent  girl,  some  quite  different  problems 
present  themselves.  In  Table  7,  the  terms  which  are  used  in  classi- 
fying the  girls'  offenses  are  the  same  as  those  which  were  used  in  the 
corresponding  table  of  boys'  offenses,  but  the  offenses  covered  by 
these  terms  are  very  different.  Stealing,  of  course,  continues  to 
indicate  the  taking  of  property;  but  the  forms  of  stealing  change. 
The  girl  is  most  frequently  charged  with  shoplifting  or  stealing  from 
the  person  by  whom  she  is  employed.  She  seldom  makes  stealing 
a  form  of  recreation,  as  the  boy  does  who  breaks  into  empty  houses 
or  attempts  a  raid  on  a  store  or  a  freight  car. 

Examples  of  the  kind  of  offenses  which  are  called  "disorderly" 
or  "incorrigible"  in  the  case  of  the  boys  have  already  been  given. 
These  words,  however,  have  an  entirely  different  meaning  when 
applied  to  the  girls.  Perhaps  the  most  frequent  charge  against  the 
incorrigible  girl  is  that  she  has  been  "staying  away  from  home  or 
going  out  at  night  in  company  with  vicious  people."  Sometimes 
she  refuses  to  stay  at  home  and  keeps  a  room  in  a  disreputable 

35 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 


quarter  of  the  city;  she  attends  tough  dances  and  does  not  come 
home  until  two  or  three  o'clock  in  the  morning;  she  associates  with 
vicious  persons,  refuses  to  work  and  brings  money  home  without 
working;  goes  away  and  stays  for  days,  is  strongly  suspected  of 
being  immoral,  uses  vulgar  and  obscene  language;  she  is  on  the 
streets  day  and  night,  stays  out  with  a  rough  crowd  of  boys  until 

TABLE    7. — DELINQUENT    GIRLS    BROUGHT    TO    COURT    EACH    YEAR 

FROM  JULY    I,    1899,    TO  JUNE   30,    1909.      NUMB.ERS   AND 

PERCENTAGES. — BY   OFFENSE 


NUMBER  OF  GIRLS  BROUGHT  TO  COURT 

DURING  THE  YEAR 

To- 

Per 

Offense 

tal 

Cent 

1899 

1900 

1901 

1902 

1903 

1904 

1905 

1906 

1907 

1908 

-00 

-01 

-02 

-03 

-04 

-05 

-06 

-07 

-08 

-09 

Stealing 

J9 

26 

43 

46 

40 

4i 

67 

63 

46 

26 

417 

15.0 

Incorrigibility    . 
Disorderly  conduct  . 

39 
25 

55 

21 

50 
15 

99 
17 

98 
24 

123 

18 

154 
27 

142 
19 

191 

12 

"! 

1186 
184 

42.8 
6.7 

Malicious  mischief    . 

2 

i 

i 

4 

0.2 

Vagrancy    . 

3 

3 

O.I 

Immorality 

24 

42 

59 

100 

61 

124 

151 

160 

58 

92 

871 

31-4 

Dependent  charges  a 

9 

10 

8 

10 

6 

ii 

12 

8 

13 

3 

90 

3-3 

Truancy 

I 

i 

o.o 

Miscellaneous  offenses 

2 

I 

3 

O.I 

Offenses  not  given     . 

3 

I 

2 

5 

•• 

J 

II 

0.4 

Total  . 

116 

158 

177 

273 

229 

317 

415 

398 

321 

366 

2770 

IOO.O 

aThese  are  the  charges  referred  to  on  page  12;  e.g.,  drunkenness  of  parents, 
lack  of  care,  etc.  The  90  girls  brought  in  on  these  charges  should  not  be  con- 
fused with  the  girls  who  after  having  been  dependent  wards  of  the  court  are  brought 
in  on  bona  fide  delinquent  charges. 

three  o'clock  in  the  morning;  or  she  stays  out  all  night  and  "admits 
that  one  night  she  stayed  at  a  hotel  with  a  young  man."*  In 
general,  the  incorrigible  or  disorderly  girl  is  one  who  "has  a  bad 

*  It  has  seemed  worth  while  to  give  an  additional  list  (see  Note  2  at  end  of 
this  chapter,  p.  53)  containing  more  detailed  examples  of  the  kinds  of  offenses 
included  under  the  terms  "incorrigible"  and  "disorderly."  A  study  of  these  ex- 
tracts from  the  court  records  will  make  clear  the  necessity  for  grouping  these  girls 
with  those  who  are  more  specifically  described  as  "immoral." 

36 


THE    WARDS    OF   THE    COURT 


reputation  in  the  neighborhood,"  one  who  has  been  going  with  bad 
company  and  staying  away  at  night. 

No  explanation  of  the  term  "immorality"  is  necessary.  Every 
effort  is  made  to  protect  the  good  name  of  such  girls  as  are  brought 
to  court,  and  in  consequence  they  are,  for  the  most  part,  charged 
with  being  "  incorrigible"  or  "  disorderly."  The  word  "immorality" 
is  never  used  in  the  petition  or  the  statement  of  the  case  if  it  can 
be  avoided,  and  when  it  is  used  it  is  probable  that  the  experience 
of  the  girl  has  not  been  either  an  isolated  or  an  accidental  one.  A 
careful  study  of  the  case  histories  of  the  girls  brought  into  court 
during  the  first  ten  years  showed  that  209  girls  had  frequented  or 
had  been  inmates  of  houses  of  prostitution,  and  1 1 7  others  had  al- 
ready resorted  to  the  use  of  rooming  houses  of  a  low,  immoral 
character.*  It  has  already  been  explained  that  the  offenses  dis- 
guised in  the  court  records  under  the  terms  "incorrigibility"  or 
"disorderly  conduct"  are  in  substance  much  the  same  as  those 
plainly  described  as  immoral.  If  we  add  to  the  871  girls  charged 
with  immorality  the  1370  who  were  called  disorderly  or  incorrigible, 
we  have  a  total  of  2241  girls  whose  delinquency  is  in  substance 
actual  or  threatened  immorality. 

That  is,  more  than  80  per  cent  of  the  delinquent  girls  are 

*  The  following  table  which  shows  the  ages  of  these  girls  is  of  interest: 


NUMBER  OF  GIRLS  TAKEN  FROM 

Age 

Houses  of 
Prostitution 

Low  Rooming 
Houses 

Total 

9  years 

i 

i 

2 

10 

I 

i 

2 

1  1 

r 

I 

12 

4 

2 

6 

13 

6 

3 

9 

14 

36 

~~~R$~ 

55 

i; 

58 

39 

97 

16 

53 

34 

87 

17 

45 

16 

61 

18 

3 

i 

4 

Not  reported 

2 

2 

Total    

209 

117 

326 

37 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 

brought  to  court  because  their  virtue  is  in  peril,  if  it  has  not 
been  already  lost."  To  put  it  another  way,  in  less  than  20  per  cent 
of  the  cases  is  there  a  first  charge  not  involving  imminent  moral 
danger.  Moreover,  even  such  incomplete  reports  of  home  condi- 
tions as  are  contained  in  the  court  records  show  that  in  a  large  num- 
ber of  these  cases  when  the  girl  is  charged  with  some  offense  like 
stealing  or  running  away,  which  is  apparently  free  from  moral  peril, 
there  is  in  reality  grave  moral  danger  in  the  conditions  under  which 
she  lives.*  The  subsequent  treatment  of  these  girls  who  have  be- 
come familiar  with  irregular  relationships  if  they  have  not  actually 
experienced  them,  is  a  very  difficult  problem.  For  it  is  obvious  that 
even  if,  because  of  the  conditions  surrounding  her  home  life  or 
the  failure  of  the  school  or  of  the  city  to  guard  her,  the  girl  herself 
should  be  held  blameless,  yet  if  she  has  had  intimate  knowledge  of 
vice  or  of  vicious  persons  and  of  vicious  conditions,  she  is  not  a  safe 
companion  for  the  child  who  is  still  ignorant  and  innocent.  If  she 
has,  because  of  vicious  inheritance  and  low  suggestion,  become  a 
source  of  temptation,  as  in  the  case  of  twelve-year-old  Annie  who 
had  already  "lived  the  life  of  a  prostitute,"  not  only  is  there  slight 
hope  of  so  rebuilding  the  body  and  spirit  that  they  may  follow 
clean  ways  of  living  and  thinking,  but  there  must  be  recognized 
the  possibility  of  both  spiritual  contagion  and  physical  infec- 
tion. 

With  the  understanding  then  that  the  terms  describing  the 
charge  may  bear  a  different  meaning  when  applied  to  boys  and 
to  girls,  the  following  table,  which  presents  a  summary  of  the 
charges  upon  which  the  two  groups  of  children  were  brought  into 
court  during  the  first  ten  years,  may  be  interesting  and  not  mis- 
leading. 

From  this  table  it  appears  again  that  while  more  than 
half,  5 1  per  cent,  of  the  boys  are  brought  in  for  the  violation  of 
property  rights,  only  1 5  per  cent  of  the  girls  are  brought  to  court 
for  similar  offenses.  On  the  other  hand,  31  per  cent  of  the  girls, 
in  contrast  with  2  per  cent  of  the  boys,  are  brought  in  for  actual 
immorality,  while  if  those  girls  who  have  been  in  real  danger  are 

*  Since  in  most  instances  the  court  records  contain  no  detailed  statement 
regarding  home  conditions,  no  complete  list  can  be  given.  In  1 18  cases,  however, 
the  facts  were  given  as  stated  here. 

38 


THE   WARDS   OF   THE   COURT 


grouped  together,   the  immoral  with  the  incorrigible  and  the 
disorderly,  they  constitute  81  per  cent  of  the  whole  number.* 

TABLE  8. — DELINQUENT  BOYS  AND  GIRLS  BROUGHT  TO  COURT  DUR- 
ING THE  TEN-YEAR  PERIOD  FROM  JULY  I,  1899,  TO  JUNE  30, 
1909.      TOTALS    AND    PERCENTAGES. — BY   OFFENSE 


NUMBER 

PER  CENT 

Offenses 

Boys 

Girls 

Boys 

Girls 

Stealing     .       .       .     «  . 

5795 

417 

50.8 

15.0 

Incorrigibility  

2478 

1186 

21.7 

42.8 

Disorderly  conduct  

1851 

184 

1  6.2 

6.7 

Malicious  mischief  

740 

4 

6.5 

O.2 

Vagrancy  

265 

3 

2.3 

O.I 

Immorality       

178 

871 

1.6 

31.4 

Dependent  charges  .       .       .       .  •     . 

90 

90 

0.8 

3-3 

Truancy     

85 

i 

0.7 

o.o 

Miscellaneous  offenses    .... 

159 

3 

1.4 

O.I 

Offense  not  given     

ii 

o.o 

0.4 

Total  

11,641 

2770 

IO2.0 

IOO.O 

Two  offenses     

228 

2.O 

Total  a      

11,413 

2770 

IOO.O 

IOO.O 

a  This  is,  of  course,  the  correct  total,  after  subtracting  the  number  of  cases 
counted  twice  because  of  the  double  charge.  The  number  of  cases  in  which  the  boy 
was  charged  with  a  double  offense  is  an  evidence  of  the  inapplicability  of  the  old 
criminal  terms  and  ideas  to  the  new  conditions  which  the  juvenile  court  was  trying 
to  create.  In  many  cases  the  boy  brought  in  as  delinquent  had  committed  an  act 
which  could  be  described  by  the  term  stealing  or  burglary,  but  this  actual  offense 
was  perhaps  only  an  occasion  for  getting  hold  of  a  boy  whose  associates  and  conduct 
in  general  were  of  such  a  character  as  to  render  it  highly  desirable  that  the  boy 
should  be  brought  under  the  care  of  the  court.  In  such  cases  there  would  be  the 
double  charge  of  stealing  and  incorrigibility,  or  stealing  and  disorderly  conduct,  or 
immorality  and  incorrigibility. 

With  the  girl,  however,  if  a  specific  offense  other  than  immorality  could  be 
named,  no  specific  mention  of  the  latter  charge  appears  in  the  records.  In  general 
it  is  true  that  in  the  court  records  the  least  possible  is  said  with  reference  to  the  occa- 
sion for  bringing  the  girl  to  court. 

Evidently  such  differences  in  offense  must  lead  to  differences 
in  treatment.  The  following  table  has  therefore  been  prepared 

*This  will  remind  many  readers  of  the  case  of  "The  Jukes," in  which  the 
women  members  of  the  family  were  harlots,  while  the  men  were  thieves.  That  is, 
if  the  community  be  taken  as  the  unit,  the  lines  of  sex  delinquency  are  drawn  in 
much  the  same  way  as  in  this  family. 

39 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 


in  order  to  show  what  disposition  was  made  of  the  cases  of  all  the 
delinquent  children  brought  in  during  the  decade. 

TABLE  9. — DISPOSITION   OF   CASES   OF   ALL  CHILDREN    BROUGHT  TO 
COURT   BETWEEN  JULY    I,    1899,   AND  JUNE   30,    1909 


NUMBER 

PER  CENT 

Disposition  of  Case 

Boys 

Girls 

Boys 

Girls 

Continued  indefinitely  or  dismissed 

1928 

278 

16.9 

IO.O 

Put  on  probation     

6770 

1039 

59-3 

37-5 

Committed  to  institutions  a  . 

2430 

1416 

21.3 

51.1 

Held  to  the  Grand  Jury  or  Municipal 

Court     

95 

2 

0.8 

O.I 

Other  disposition     

34 

0.3 

o.o 

Disposition  of  cases  not  recorded    . 

156 

35 

1.4 

i-3 

Total  

11,413 

2770 

IOO.O 

IOO.O 

a  Number  of  boys  committed  to  each  institution: 

John  Worthy  School     ....  1957 

Chicago  Parental  School      ...  40 

St.  Mary's  Home  (Feehanville) 1        .  117 

Glenwood 69 

St.  Charles  School  for  Boys       .       .  123 

Junior  Business  Club    ....  83 

Institutions  for  dependent  boys  .       .  41 

2430 
Number  of  girls  committed  to  each  institution: 

House  of  the  Good  Shepherd 609 

Chicago  Refuge  for  Girls 371 

Illinois  Training  School  for  Girls  (Geneva)      .       .  333 

Illinois  Industrial  School l 45 

Chicago  Industrial  School l         ..'...  22 
Societies,  hospitals,  and  institutions  for  dependent 

girls 36 

1416 

1  These  institutions  are  nominally  for  dependent  children.  When  the  other 
institutions  are  crowded,  however,  if  the  child's  delinquency  is  not  so  serious  as  to 
threaten  the  morals  of  the  school,  the  apparently  delinquent  child  is  committed  to 
one  of  these.  Such  a  disposition  often  occasions  real  ambiguity  as  to  the  proper 
classification  of  the  child. 

This  table  shows  interesting  differences  in  the  method  of  deal- 
ing with  the  boys  and  girls  who  are  brought  to  court.  In  the  first 
place,  the  proportion  of  boys  whose  cases  are  dismissed,*  or  con- 

*  "Dismissed"  means  that  neither  the  conduct  of  the  child  nor  the  home 
conditions  justify  the  court  in  assuming  jurisdiction. 

40 


THE   WARDS    OF   THE   COURT 

tinued  indefinitely,*  is  larger  than  of  girls.  The  reason  has  already 
been  given  in  the  less  serious  character  of  the  offenses  of  the  boys  and 
in  the  greater  unwillingness  to  bring  the  girls  into  court.  In  many 
instances  the  distracted  parent  or  the  vexed  neighbor  may  feel  that 
bringing  the  boy  in  will  do  him  no  harm  and  may  "  give  him  a  good 
scare."  The  boy,  too,  suffers  from  his  connection  with  a  gang  for 
whose  really  serious  offenses  he  may  be  found  not  to  be  responsible. 
The  girl,  on  the  other  hand,  is  not  a  member  of  a  gang,  and  her 
family  are  reluctant  to  acknowledge  or  expose  her  waywardness. 
For  similar  reasons  there  is  a  striking  difference  between  the  propor- 
tion of  boys  and  girls  put  on  probation.  While  it  appears  that  59 
per  cent  of  the  boys  who  come  into  court  for  the  first  time  are  re- 
turned to  their  homes  under  the  care  of  a  probation  officer  and  only 
2 1  per  cent  are  sent  to  institutions,  with  the  girls  these  proportions 
are  almost  exactly  reversed — 5 1  per  cent  are  removed  from  their 
homes  and  committed  to  institutions  and  only  37  per  cent  are  re- 
turned to  their  parents  or  guardians.  The  girl  is  not  brought  into 
court  until  her  environment  has  been  proved  too  dangerous  to  be 
rendered  safe  by  the  services  of  the  probation  officer.  She  is  in  peril 
which  threatens  the  ruin  of  her  whole  life,  and  the  situation  de- 
mands immediate  action;  her  only  hope  of  rescue  seems  to  lie  in 
prompt  removal  from  her  old  surroundings  and  associates.  The 
delinquent  boy,  on  the  other  hand,  is  frequently  only  a  trouble- 
some nuisance  who  needs  discipline  but  who,  as  the  probation 
officer  so  often  says,  is  "not  really  a  bad  boy"  and  "with  a  little 
watching  he  is  sure  to  come  out  all  right." 

With  this  difference  in  the  seriousness  of  the  first  offense 
and  in  the  method  of  treatment  after  their  first  appearance,  it  is  not 
difficult  to  understand  why  the  "repeaters"  are  more  numerous 
among  the  boys  than  among  the  girls.  A  table  is  given  showing 
the  number  of  times  each  delinquent  child  was  brought  into  court 
during  the  first  eight  years,  from  which  it  appears  that  while 
only  20  per  cent  of  the  girls  appear  before  the  court  more  than 
once,  32  per  cent  of  the  boys  are  "  repeaters." 

*  While  neither  institutional  care  nor  the  services  of  a  probation  officer  seem 
to  be  demanded  by  the  seriousness  of  the  case,  the  court  retains  jurisdiction  and 
can  exercise  control  at  any  time. 

41 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 


TABLE      IO. — NUMBER     OF     TIMES     DELINQUENT     CHILDREN     WERE 

BROUGHT    TO    COURT    DURING    THE     EIGHT-YEAR     PERIOD 

FROM   JULY    I,    1899,   TO  JUNE   30,    1907* 


NUMBER 

PER  CENT 

Aggregate  Number  of  Times  in  Court 

Boys 

Gfrls 

Boys 

Girls 

Once    . 

6425 

1660 

67.9 

79-7 

Twice  . 
Three  times 

1725 
686 

354 
53 

18.3 
7-2 

17.0 

2-5 

Four  times  . 

34  i 

13 

3.6 

0.6 

Five  times  . 

159 

2 

i-7 

O.I 

Six  times     . 

54 

I 

0.6 

O.I 

Seven  times 

28 

0.3 

Eight  times. 

9 

O.I 

Nine  times  . 

4 

o.o 

Ten  times    . 

Eleven  times 

I 

o.o 

Not  specified 

33 

0.3 

Total    

9465 

2083 

IOO.O 

IOO.O 

.a  Since  the  children  who  have  been  more  recently  brought  to  court  have  had 
as  yet  little  time  to  repeat,  the  figures  for  the  first  eight  years  seem  more  significant 
alone  than  with  the  data  for  the  ninth  and  tenth  years  added.  The  question  of  the 
persistent  "repeater"  is  obviously  a  very  serious  one,  but  a  detailed  discussion  of 
it  belongs  more  properly  within  the  scope  of  the  volume  which  deals  with  the  de- 
linquent child  and  the  court. 

In  connection  with  the  large  proportion  of  girls  who  do  not 
return — 80  per  cent  as  compared  with  the  68  per  cent  of  boys 
who  are  never  brought  in  after  their  first  appearance — it  should 
be  remembered  not  only  that  their  offenses  are  more  serious  and 
that  they  are  more  often  sent  to  institutions,  but  that  they  are 
retained  in  these  institutions  for  longer  periods,  and  have  no 
such  chance  as  the  boys  have  to  "get  into  trouble  again." 

While  we  should  not  be  too  sanguine  as  to  the  meaning  of 
the  figures  which  indicate  that  in  the  cases  of  68  per  cent  of  the 
boys  a  second  appearance  in  court  is  avoided,  it  is  evident  from 
the  family  and  probation  schedules  that  the  experience  in  court 
was  often  a  most  salutary  lesson  which  needed  to  be  learned  only 
once.  Frequently  we  meet  the  statement,  in  substance  if  not  in 
precise  form,  in  the  family  schedules:  "He  was  put  on  probation 
and  was  never  in  court  again";  or  "  His  mother  says  he  has  been  a 

42 


THE   WARDS   OF   THE   COURT 

good  boy  ever  since";  or,  as  in  another  case,  "The  boy  was 
much  humiliated  by  being  taken  into  court.  He  didn't  intend 
to  steal,  but  his  only  way  of  getting  spending  money  was  by 
taking  things  to  a  junk  dealer";  or,  "His  mother  says  that  his 
experience  in  court  frightened  him  badly  and  he  has  been  very 
straight  ever  since." 

While  no  attempt  will  be  made  in  this  volume  to  discuss 
the  court  from  the  institutional  point  of  view,  it  seems  important 
to  note  here  certain  obvious  facts  relating  to  its  general  policy. 
It  appears,  for  example,  that  often  when  several  children  are 
brought  in  together  for  participating  in  a  single  experience,  some 
of  the  members  of  the  group  will  be  put  on  probation,  while  others 
are  at  once  committed  to  institutions,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  all 
alike  seem  to  have  been  guilty  of  the  same  offense.  Thus,  when 
three  boys  were  brought  in  for  "  breaking  into  a  basement,  though 
they  did  not  steal,"  the  eleven-year-old  Polish  boy  was  charged  with 
attempted  burglary  and  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School,  while 
his  twelve-year-old  American  and  thirteen-year-old  Polish  com- 
panions were  charged  with  malicious  mischief  and  put  on  proba- 
tion. Again,  in  many  cases  when  several  children  are  brought  in 
separately  charged  in  identical  terms  as  delinquent,  they  receive 
wholly  different  treatment.  In  fact,  .the  whole  theory  on  which 
the  court  is  established  makes  it  clear  that  the  act  committed 
by  the  child  is,  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  court  in  determin- 
ing what  is  to  be  done  with  him,  of  slight  importance.  The 
weighty  questions  are,  how  did  he  or  she  happen  to  commit  this 
offense;  and,  are  the  circumstances  which  lead  to  this  wrongdoing 
such  as  to  indicate  the  probability  of  a  repetition;  and  if  so,  can 
the  conditions  unfavorable  to  the  child  be  so  altered  as  to  give 
him  a  fair  chance  without  removing  him  from  his  home,  or  must 
he  be  placed  in  a  wholly  different  environment?  If  the  latter 
course  be  necessary,  few  alternatives  to  the  institution  present 
themselves. 

It  is  evident,  too,  that  the  judge  is  limited  not  only  by  the 
legal  principles  which  must  guide  his  decision  but  by  the  lack  of 
material  resources  at  his  command. 

When  the  detention  home  is   full  and   the   institutions  are 


43 


THE    DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 

overcrowded,*  the  court  is  helpless  before  the  problem  of  a  girl 
brought  in  by  a  frightened  mother  who  wants  her  sent  away 
because  she  has  been  staying  away  nights  and  refusing  to  tell 
what  she  has  been  doing.  In  the  absence  of  proper  facilities 
for  caring  for  her,  the  judge  can  only  send  her  home  under 
the  promise  that  she  will  try  to  get  back  her  old  job  in  a  depart- 
ment store  and  be  more  careful  about  her  comings  and  goings, 
though  he  can  see  by  the  "smart  way"  in  which  the  hair  is  done 
and  by  the  angle  at  which  the  cheaply  trimmed  hat  is  placed,  as 
well  as  by  other  unmistakable  evidences,  that  the  way  of  that 
girl  through  the  department  store  is  as  plainly  downward  as  if 
his  own  feet  felt  the  beginning  of  the  descent.f 

If  the  parents  wish  to  be  rid  of  their  boy  or  are  evidently 
degraded  and  unworthy,  an  institution  for  delinquent  boys  may  be 
better  for  him  than  his  home,  although  he  may  have  committed 
very  slight  offenses.  At  another  time,  when  there  is  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  the  institution  is  not  wisely  administered,  it  may  seem 
best  to  leave  him  in  the  midst  of  the  extremely  unfavorable  sur- 
roundings of  his  own  home.  Only  on  the  supposition  that  the 
court  must  often  select  for  the  child  the  least  harmful  surround- 
ings, can  the  disposition,  in  many  cases,  be  understood.  What  is 
done  may  seem  futile;  the  alternative,  however,  may  have  seemed 
positively  harmful. 

In  no  case,  however,  can  the  court  act  wisely  except  on  the 

*  The  following  is  the  list  of  institutions  which  are  available  to  the  court  in 
disposing  of  delinquent  children,  together  with  the  number  that  may  be  cared  for  at 
any  one  time: 

Girls 
Illinois  Training  School  for  Girls  .       .       .     400 


Chicago  Refuge  for  Girls 
House  of  the  Good  Shepherd 

Boys 

St.  Charles  School  for  Boys  . 
John  Worthy  School 


100 

500 

400 
400 


In  the  case  of  the  Illinois  State  Training  School  for  Girls,  Mrs.  Ophelia  L. 
Amigh,  superintendent,  informs  us  that  there  is  no  special  rule  as  to  the  number  that 
may  be  committed  from  any  one  county  but  usually  more  than  one-third  are  wards 
of  Cook  County.  Officer  Peckham  of  the  St.  Charles  School  for  Boys  tells  us  that  at 
the  present  time  there  are  about  150  boys  there  from  Cook  County;  and  that,  in 
general,  40  per  cent  of  their  number  are  from  this  county. 

t  For  a  recent  confirmation  of  this  statement,  see  Judge  Pinckney's  Testi- 
mony, Appendix  II,  p.  222. 

44 


THE   WARDS   OF   THE   COURT 

basis  of  adequate  information  regarding  the  child's  home  sur- 
roundings and  the  attitude  of  the  parents  to  the  child's  delinquency. 
And  as  it  is  essential  that  the  judge  should  have  adequate  knowledge 
of  the  physical  and  spiritual  condition  of  the  home  before  he  can 
understand  the  problem  of  any  individual  child,  so  in  attempting 
to  understand  the  larger  problem  of  delinquent  childhood,  it  has 
seemed  important  to  set  forth  such  facts  as  could  be  learned  re- 
garding the  home  circumstances  of  the  whole  group  of  children  who 
are  called  delinquent.  In  the  following  chapters  an  attempt  has 
been  made  to  set  forth  these  facts;  and  it  is  believed  that  whatever 
judgment  may  be  later  formed  as  to  the  work  which  has  been  carried 
on  by  the  court,  it  will  appear  as  an  institution  having  incalculable 
value  as  a  means  of  uncovering  those  misfortunes  and  wrongs  of 
which  our  city  children,  big  and  little,  good  and  bad,  are  the 
victims.  In  these  chapters  it  will  appear: 

(1)  That  many  of  the  children  suffer  from  a  lack  of  parental 
care  and  discipline  because  the  parents  are  strangers  in  a  strange 
land  and  cannot  foresee  the  dangers  to  which  the  children  will 
be  exposed,  nor  train  them  to  resist  temptations  which  appear 
in  novel  guise,  nor  protect  them  in  the  hour  of  real  trial. 

(2)  That  many  have  suffered  from  neglect  because  of  the 
poverty  of  the  family,  and  that  some  have  been  sacrificed  to  undue 
family  thrift. 

(3)  That  many  have  been  deprived  of  full  parental  care  as 
a  result  of  the  death  or  illness  of  one  or  both  parents,  and  that  in 
the  case  of  many  children  this  misfortune  of  orphanage  has  brought 
other  misfortunes  in  its  train. 

(4)  That  many  delinquent  children  have  been  the  victims 
of  confused  family  situations  or  of  degraded  and   brutalizing 
homes. 

(5)  That  many  have  been  neglected  by  the  schools  and 
have  been  allowed  to  grow  toward  maturity  without  any  adequate 
equipment,  either  of  a  cultural  or  of  an  industrial  character;   and 
that  in  no  small  number  of  cases  they  are  without  even  a  fair 
knowledge  of  the  English  language. 

In  connection  with  this  neglect  by  the  schools,  attention 
may  be  called  to  the  fact  that  the  church  as  an  organization  fails 
lamentably  in  what  would  seem  to  be  its  peculiar  concern,  the 

45 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

moral  well-being  of  the  youth  under  its  care.  There  are,  of  course, 
schools  maintained  for  delinquent  children  by  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church,  such  as  the  House  of  the  Good  Shepherd,  and  there 
are  church  homes  for  dependent  children  who  in  many  cases  are 
in  danger  of  becoming  delinquent — notably  St.  Mary's  Training 
School  at  Desplaines  (Feehanville)  and  the  Angel  Guardian  Orphan 
Asylum.  There  are,  too,  a  few  clergymen  to  whom  children  have 
been  paroled,  and  the  Federation  of  Protestant  Churches  has 
supported,  since  January  i,  1910,  an  officer  for  the  purpose  of 
finding  homes  for  semi-delinquent  boys  and  girls  who  are  brought 
under  the  notice  of  the  court.  It  is  significant,  however,  that  in 
very  few  instances  was  improvement  attributed  by  any  one  ques- 
tioned during  this  inquiry  to  the  effort  of  a  representative  of  any 
church. 

(6)  And,  finally,  it  will  appear  that  throughout  the  whole 
story  runs  the  thread  of  civic  neglect  by  the  city  and  of  its  lack 
of  intelligent  care  for  this  priceless  treasure  of  the  youth  in  its 
midst — lack  of  clean,  wholesome,  upbuilding  recreation,  lack  of 
supervision  when  supervision  spells  largest  freedom,  lack  of  ade- 
quate training,  lack  of  provision  for  the  separate  instruction 
of  those  handicapped  mentally  or  physically,  the  complaisant 
failure  to  prevent  the  exploitation  of  youth  in  employments  which 
sap  the  moral  and  intellectual  fiber,  the  presence  of  vicious  amuse- 
ments, and  the  handing  over  of.jthis  age  when  love  of  adventure  is 
strong,  this  age  of  questioning  and  of  emotional  growth,  to  com- 
mercial interests  hostile  to  youth  as  they  are  hostile  to  the  best  life 
of  the  community.  In  the  following  chapters  many  cases  will  be 
cited  in  which  the  court  has  been  able  to  lift  children  out  of  such 
conditions  and  to  counteract  through  the  devoted  watchfulness  of 
its  officers  and  agents  the  evil  influences  which  had  been  at  work. 
But  obviously  there  must  appear  many  cases  in  which  no  institu- 
tion could  restore  to  the  child  already  demoralized  the  chance  of 
sound  living  and  the  right  to  good  citizenship  of  which  he  has  been 
forever  deprived.*  The  presentation  of  such  cases  would  be  over- 
whelming, were  it  not  possible  to  point  to  a  newly  awakening 
realization  of  the  omissions  of  the  past  and  of  the  task  which 

*  For  a  striking  comment  on  this  situation,  see  Judge  Pinckney's  Testimony, 
Appendix  II,  p.  208  ff. 

46 


THE   WARDS   OF   THE   COURT 

lies  before  us  in  the  immediate  future.  It  is  believed  that  the 
facts  we  give  fully  justify  the  creation  of  the  court,  since  through 
them  it  is  seen  to  be  the  great  uncoverer  of  wrongs  to  childhood; 
and  as  the  wrongs  are  uncovered,  remedies  inevitably  suggest 
themselves,  and  such  facts  as  may  seem  to  be  an  evidence  of 
weakness  on  the  part  of  the  court  are  in  fact  a  plea  for  increasing 
its  forces  and  strengthening  its  influence. 


47 


THE    DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE   HOME 

NOTES  TO  CHAPTER  II 


NOTE  i. — This  list,  giving  not  only  the  court  charges  but  the  actual  offense  ir 
a  series  of  boys'  cases  taken  just  as  they  came,  is  offered  in  the  hope  that  it  may  throv 
further  light  on  the  discussion  in  this  chapter.  (See  footnote,  p.  32.) 


Nationality 

Age 

Charge 

Real  Offenses 

Disposition 

Norwegian     . 

12 

Incorrigibility 

Followed    six-year-old    boy 

Probation 

home  and  took  $1.00  from 

his    pocket.     Has    stolen 

from  parents. 

Irish 

13 

Incorrigibility 

Stole  bicycle  valued  at  $20 

Continued* 

from  a  man's  home.     Said 

he  bought  it  for  $3.00  from 

a  boy. 

German 

15 

Incorrigibility 

Ran  away;    found  sleeping 

Continued 

in  buildings  down  town  at 

12:30  a.  m.    Won't  obey 

father. 

English  . 

14 

Assault 

Struck  a  boy  on  head  with  a 

Probation 

broom    and    killed    him. 

Conflicting  stories. 

Italian    . 

13 

Assault 

Fought    a    boy,    and    after 

Probation 

being  separated  by  some 
one,    drew    a    knife    and 

stabbed  boy  in  shoulder. 

American 

16 

Incorrigibility 

While  engineer  and  porter 

John  Worthy 

in  five-cent  theater  he  blew 

School 

top  off  boiler  by  turning 

on  water.     $30  damages. 

German 

9 

Incorrigibility 

Stole  two    rugs   valued    at 

Probation 

$9.00.     Sold  them  for  50 

cents.    Not  a  normal  boy. 

American 

12 

Incorrigibility 

Won't   attend   school.     Ex- 

Continued 

pelled  from  two.     Father 

cannot  control  him. 

Bohemian 

16 

Incorrigibility 

Entered  bedroom  and  stole 

John  Worthy 

$25  watch.     Stayed  away 

School 

from  home  five  months. 

Polish     .       . 

15 

Incorrigibility 

Mother  says  he  is  disobe- 

John Worthy 

dient,     uses    vulgar    lan- 

School 

guage.     Stays  away  from 

home. 

Swedish 

14 

Stealing 

Stole  studs,  pins,  etc.,  from 

Probation 

custodian  with  whom   he 

had  been  one  week. 

*That  is,  held  under  the  immediate  jurisdiction  of  the  court,  subject  at  any  time  to 

summons  to  reappear,  but  not  placed  on  probation. 

48 


THE   WARDS  OF  THE   COURT 
NOTES  TO  CHAPTER  II. — (Continued.) 


Nationality 

Age 

Charge 

Real  Offenses 

Disposition 

ierman 

H 

Incorrigibility 

Parents  want  him  to  be  a 

Continued 

baker.     He  wants  to  be  an 

electrician.     Parents    said 

they  could  not  control  him. 

He  says  father  is  cruel  to 

him. 

'olish     .       . 

15 

Incorrigibility 

Has  run  away  from  home 

John  Worthy 

seven  times.     Parents  say 

School 

he  is  incorrigible. 

Colored  . 

H 

Incorrigibility 

Lazy,     smokes     cigarettes; 

John  Worthy 

impudent  and  a  nuisance 

School 

to  himself  and  everyone  else. 

ierman 

15 

Stealing 

Broke   into  workshed  used 

John  Worthy 

as  a  store  room  and  stole 

School 

clothes. 

loumanian   . 

15 

Incorrigibility 

Stayed  away  from  home  two 

Probation 

weeks.     Found  down  town 

at  12:30  a.  m. 

American 

15 

Incorrigibility 

Mother  cannot  control  him. 

Continued 

Won't    work.     Stays    out 

nights. 

lussian 

10 

Incorrigibility 

Stole  watch  fob  valued  at 

Probation 

75  cents  from  department 

store. 

American 

14 

Incorrigibility 

Stays    out    nights    and    is 
wholly  incorrigible. 

John  Worthy 
School 

talian   . 

16 

Carrying  con- 

Carried concealed  weapons. 

Dismissed 

cealed  weap- 

ons 

Jthuanian    . 

15 

Incorrigibility 

Runs  away,  stays  out  nights, 

Continued 

has    stolen    money    from 

parents. 

3olish    .       . 

H 

Stealing 

Broke  seals  on  freight  cars 

Dismissed 

and  stole  grain. 

Herman 

H 

Stealing 

Stole  coal  from  the  railway. 

Continued 

Bohemian 

ii 

Stealing 

Stole  $10  from  father  and 

Probation 

stayed    away   for    several 

days.     Bought  friend  pair 

of  rubber  boots,   leggings 

and  pair  of  trousers,  and 

then  went  home. 

Polish    .       . 

16 

Incorrigibility 

Answered  to  another  boy's 

Probation 

name  and  took  his  wages, 

rff                              ^.    XT                         /~>y~k»-M  v»rt  m  r 

£>4o   '  **'  ^           v-.omp<iny. 

Boy  says  he  did  not  do  it. 

49 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 

NOTES  TO  CHAPTER  II. — (Continued.) 


Nationality 

Age 

Charge 

Real  Offenses 

Disposition 

German 

16 

Immorality 

Admits    immoral    relations 

Probation 

with  an  eighteen-year-old 

girl. 

German 

«4 

Stealing 

Stole  eighteen-dollar  harness 

Probation 

and  two  bales  of  hay.  Took 

$8.00  from  a  store. 

Polish     . 

15 

Incorrigibility 

Abusive     to     mother     and 

Children's     H 

sister.    Out    late    nights. 

pital  Society 

Steals  everything  he  can 

find. 

Irish 

15 

Incorrigibility 

Won't   go  to   school.     Has 

John  Worthy 

been    staying   out    nights 

School 

lately. 

German 

13 

Incorrigibility 

Won't  go  to  school  or  work. 

John  Worthy 

Father  wants  him  sent  to 

School 

a  home. 

American 

16 

Immorality 

Came  from  Vermont  in  re- 

Continued 

and  stealing 

sponse   to   letter  from   a 

Chicago  man,  who  abused 

him.     Boy  also  stole  $1.25 

from  a  man's  room. 

French   . 

12 

Incorrigibility 

Accidentally   shot   in   leg  — 

Dismissed 

was  taking  turns  shooting 

at  a  hat  in  some  water. 

American 

15 

Incorrigibility 

Mother  cannot  control  him. 

Probation 

and  absence 

Stays   in    basement   with 

from  home. 

boys  who  gamble. 

German 

16 

Incorrigibility 

Stole  coal  from  cars,  loiters 

John  Worthy 

on  tracks.         Repeatedly 

School 

warned  to  keep  off. 

Italian 

— 

Incorrigibility 

Charged    with    throwing    a 

Dismissed 

brick  at  a  man. 

Russian 

— 

Incorrigibility 

Mother     accused     him     of 

Continued 

spending  $5.00  which  was 

his  pay.     Stays  away  from 

home. 

Roumanian   . 

15 

Incorrigibility 

Stole  things  from  his  mother 

Probation 

and  brother  and  tried  to 

sell  them. 

German 

16 

Incorrigibility 

Charged  with  using  profane 

Continued 

language  on  street  at  1  30 

a.  m. 

Colored  . 

14 

Stealing 

Stole  a  watch  from  one  of 

Continued 

the  other  pupils  at  school. 

50 


THE   WARDS   OF  THE   COURT 
NOTES  TO  CHAPTER  II. — (Continued.) 


Nationality 

Age 

Charge 

Real  Offenses 

Disposition 

Italian    . 

13 

Incorrigibility 

Beyond       control,      loiters 

Probation 

around  school,  annoys  pu- 

pils.    Truant  one  week. 

Polish     . 

15 

Stealing 

Broke  seals  on  freight  cars 

Continued 

and  stole  grain. 

Polish     . 

15 

Stealing 

Broke  grain  doors  from  rail- 

Continued 

way  cars. 

Irish 

15 

Burglary 

Broke  into  a  shed  and  stole 

Probation 

40  Ibs.  of  zinc,  three  chick- 

ens, and  four  wash  boilers. 

Polish     . 

16 

Incorrigibility 

Beyond     parent's     control. 

Probation 

Away     from     home     one 

month. 

Polish     .       . 

15 

Stealing 

Stole    nine    coupling    pins 

Probation 

valued  at  $6.00  from  the 

railway. 

Irish 

16 

Incorrigibility 

Beyond     control.       Breaks 

Probation 

furniture  and  calls  mother 

bad  names. 

French   . 

13 

Incorrigibility 

Mother      cannot      manage 

John  Worthy 

him  and  wants  him  sent 

School 

away. 

Colored  . 

16 

Stealing 

Pulled   a  man  off  a  news- 

John Worthy 

paper   wagon;    also    stole 

School 

newspapers     from     door- 

ways. 

Bohemian 

16 

Incorrigibility 

Parents    say    he    is    incor- 

Probation 

rigible.      Stays     away     a 

week    at    a    time.     Once 

stole  $4.00  from  mother. 

Colored  . 

15 

Incorrigibility 

Loiters  around  school  talk- 

Probation 

ing   to    girls.     Caught    in 

bedroom    with    two    girls 

and   another   boy   in   ab- 

sence of  any  older  person 

in  house. 

Polish     . 

9 

Stealing 

Stole  grain  from  freight  cars 

Continued 

of  Wabash  elevator. 

jerman 

H 

Incorrigibility 

Used   a  transfer  for  which 

Dismissed 

he  did  not  pay. 

rish 

16 

Incorrigibility 

While  order  clerk  in  jewelry 

Probation 

store      stole      two      rings 

(value,   $11.50)    and    one 

knife  (value,  50  cents). 

THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND   THE   HOME 
NOTES  TO  CHAPTER  II. — (Continued.) 


Nationality 

Age 

Charge 

Real  Offenses 

Disposition 

American 

16 

Incorrigibility 

Bummed  his  way  here  from 

To  be  sent  home 

Missouri  Valley  and  was 

to  Iowa 

found  wandering  streets  at 

night.     Went  to  store  and 

bought    cigars    (one    cent 

each);  asked  for  two  cents' 

trust.     Boy  and  owner  got 

into  fight. 

Italian    . 

16 

Incorrigibility 

Others    held    a    boy   while 

Dismissed 

he    pounded    him;    judge 

couldn't     tell     who     was 

truthful. 

Hungarian     . 

15 

Incorrigibility 

Drinks,    smokes    cigarettes, 

Continued 

and  steals. 

Irish 

15 

Incorrigibility 

Mother  cannot  control  him. 

St.  Charles 

Stays   out   nights   and   is 

untruthful. 

Polish     . 

16 

Incorrigibility 

Mother  has  tried  for  eight 

John  Worthy 

months  to  get  him  to  work. 

School 

Annoys  parents  and  steals 

from  neighbors. 

Polish     . 

13 

Incorrigibility 

Stole  $36  from  a  safe  in  a 

Probation 

neighbor's     house.     Spent 

$11  of  it. 

Polish     . 

14 

Incorrigibility 

Stole  father's  watch  (value, 

John  Worthy 

$12).    Once    before    stole 

School 

$5.00    from    mother    and 

tried    to    shoot    peddler. 

(Father   wants    him    sent 

to  John  Worthy  School.) 

16 

Incorrigibility 

Passed     several     worthless 

John  Worthy 

»              • 

checks  ($36  in  all).     Spent 

School 

money    for    theater    and 

drinks. 

Polish     . 

16 

Incorrigibility 

Hit  a  man's  horse  and  called 

Dismissed 

him  a  vile  name. 

Italian    . 

12 

Assault 

Got  his  brother  to  help  him 

Continued 

in  fight  with  another  boy. 

Stabbed   boy   so  that   he 

was  in  hospital  five  days. 

THE   WARDS   OF  THE   COURT 

NOTE  2. — A  LIST  OF  EXTRACTS  FROM  THE  COURT  RECORDS  OF  "INCOR- 
RIGIBLE" GIRLS.    (See  footnote,  p.  36.) 

1.  "Incorrigible." — Girl  has  been  living  at  G Hotel;  has 

told  her  father  she  is  going  to  marry  the  hotel  proprietor.     Her  father 
thinks  she  is  leading  a  criminal  life.     (Disposition: — Sent  to  House  of 
the  Good  Shepherd.) 

2.  "Incorrigible." — Father  reports  that    girl    stays  away   from 
home  sometimes  a  week  at  a  time.     Physician's  examination  indicates 
immorality.     (Disposition: — Sent  to  Geneva.) 

3.  "Disorderly  and  incorrigible." — Mother  says  girl  is  hard  to 
control;  associates  with  vicious  persons;  has  been  visiting  a  disrepu- 
table house  in  company  with  bad  men.     (Disposition: — Probation.) 

4.  "Incorrigible." — Girl  left  home  and  was  arrested  in  a  house  of 
ill-fame.     (Disposition: — Sent  to  House  of  the  Good  Shepherd.) 

5.  "Disorderly." — This  girl  was  arrested  at  2:30  a.  m.,  with  a 
young  man  who  claimed  to  be  her  cousin.     When  arrested  the  man  was 
trying  to  take  her  into  the  railroad  yards.     The  girl's  mother  is  dead,  her 
father  works  at  night,  and  there  is  no  one  to  care  for  her.     (Disposition: — 
Sent  to  the  House  of  the  Good  Shepherd.) 

6.  "Incorrigible." — Girl  left  home  one  month  ago  and  is  said  to 
have  been  living  on  L Street  with  a  woman  of  questionable  char- 
acter.    (Disposition: — Probation.     This  girl  was  returned  in  four  months 
again  charged  as  "Incorrigible."     Her  mother  said  she  was  staying  out 
all  night  and  asked  to  have  her  sent  to  the  House  of  the  Good  Shepherd. 
After  release  from  this  institution  she  came  back  on  a  third  charge  of  in- 
corrigibility.     This  time  it  was  found  necessary  to  send  her  to  the  Refuge.) 

7.  "Incorrigible." — Will  not  attend  school;  associates  with  a  bad 
set  of  boys  and  girls  and  stays  out  late  at  night;  visited  a  house  of  ill- 
fame;  grandparents  refuse  to  keep  her  any  longer.     (Disposition: — Sent 
to  Geneva.) 

8.  "Incorrigible." — Complaint  of  mother.      Girl  stays  away  from 
home  and  has  bad  associates.     Admits  that  she  was  with  two  young  men 
from  Friday  until  Thursday.     (Disposition: — Sent  to  the  House  of  the 
Good  Shepherd.) 

9.  "Disorderly." — Mother   says    daughter  will  not  obey;  stays 
out  late  nights;  keeps  bad  company  and  is  going  astray;  stays  away  from 
home  days  at  a  time.     (Disposition: — Sent  to  Erring  Woman's  Refuge. 
Released  later  to  go  to  the  country  with  her  parents  but  within  a  year  the 
family  returned  to  Chicago.     The  girl  was  arrested  for  soliciting  on  the 
streets,  returned  to  court,  and  was  committed  again  to  the  Refuge.) 

5  53 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 

10.  "Incorrigible." — Mother  says  girl  will  not  work,  runs  streets, 
stays  out  nights.  Two  years  ago  when  the  girl  was  fifteen,  she  married 
a  man  to  keep  from  being  sent  away,  but  she  has  lived  since  with  her 
mother  who  says  she  is  incorrigible.  (Disposition: — Probation.) 

n.  "Incorrigible." — Girl  runs  away  from  home.  Has  a  room  in 
disreputable  district.  (Disposition: — House  of  the  Good  Shepherd.) 

12.  "Incorrigible." — Stays  away  from  home.     Mother  asks  to 
have  her  sent  to  the  House  of  the  Good  Shepherd. 

13.  "Incorrigible." — Father  says  he  cannot  control    girl.      She 
runs  away  from  home  and  associates  with  vicious  people.     She  ran  away 
four  weeks  ago  and  has  since  been  rooming  in  questionable  places.     (Dis- 
position:— Probation.    Within  four  months  girl  was  arrested  in  house  of 
ill-fame,  returned  to  court,  and  sent  to  House  of  the  Good  Shepherd.) 

14.  "Incorrigible." — Arrested  on  complaint  of  father  who  accuses 
her  of  keeping  bad  company.     She  was  recently  arrested  for  running 
away  from  home  and  staying  in  a  rooming  house.     (Disposition: — Sent 
to  House  of  Correction  and  House  of  Good  Hope.     Girl  in  court  again 
one  year  later,  and  within  two  years  arrested  in  house  of  ill-fame.) 

15.  "Incorrigible." — Girl  continually  out  late  at  night  in  unfit 
company;     beyond    father's    control.     (Disposition: — Probation.     Re- 
turned to  court  in  a  few  months  and  "acknowledged  she  had  been  leading 
an  immoral  life".) 

1 6.  "Incorrigible." — Girl  arrested  on  complaint  of  mother  for 
running  away  from  home  and  keeping  bad  company.     (Disposition: — 
Probation.     Within  less  than  a  year  sent  to  Refuge  with  a  two-months-old 
baby.) 

17.  "Incorrigible." — Arrested  in    a  questionable  rooming  house. 
(Disposition: — Probation.     Returned  to  court   following  month,   same 
charge,  and  three  months  later  again  arrested  in  questionable  place,  and 
finally  sent  to  the  House  of  the  Good  Shepherd  on  definite  charge  of 
"  immorality.") 

18.  "Disorderly  and  Incorrigible." — Girl    ran  away  from  home 
last  summer  and  has  been  beyond  control  of  parents  ever  since;  associates 
with  vicious  company  and  frequents  a  disorderly  house.     (Disposition: — 
Probation.) 


54 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  CHILD  OF  THE  IMMIGRANT:    THE  PROBLEM  OF 
ADJUSTMENT 

THE  first  impression  made  upon  the  observer  by  the  children 
who  appear  before  the  bar  of  the  court  is  that  of  their  for- 
eign appearance,  the  un-American  air  of  the  mother  and 
father  who  accompany  them,  and  the  strangeness  to  them  of  all 
their  surroundings.  The  children  may  speak  English,  but  some 
members  of  the  group  usually  require  the  services  of  an  interpreter; 
and  the  lack  of  intelligence  with  which  they  receive  much  of  what 
is  said  by  the  judge,  probation  officers,  and  witnesses,  adds  to 
their  apparent  helplessness.  This  suggestion  of  foreign  manners 
and  of  strangeness  is  not  surprising  when  we  recall  the  fact  that 
in  the  population  of  Chicago  more  than  36  different  nationalities 
are  represented;  that  there  are,  in  round  numbers,  more  than 
500,000  foreign  born  inhabitants  and  more  than  700,000  who 
are  the  children  of  foreign  born  parents.  In  contrast  with  this 
large  foreign  element,  there  are  only  about  350,000  white  Amer- 
icans "  native  born  of  native  parents,"  a  small  group  to  dominate 
in  collective  experience  and  institutional  purpose. 

The  foreign  born  residents  of  Chicago  and  of  other  large 
cities  of  the  country  tend  to  segregate  themselves  in  separate 
national  groups  where,  in  churches  and  schools,  and  in  social, 
fraternal,  and  national  organizations,  the  speech,  the  ideals,  and 
to  some  extent  the  manner  of  life  of  the  mother  country  are  zeal- 
ously preserved  and  guarded.  In  these  large  foreign  colonies, 
which  lead  a  more  or  less  isolated  group  life,  there  is  therefore  a 
problem  of  adaptation  both  difficult  and  complex;  a  problem  which 
is  especially  perplexing  in  connection  with  the  proper  discipline  of 
the  American  born  children.  For  it  should  be  kept  in  mind  that  the 

55 


THE   DELINQUENT   CHILD   AND  THE    HOME 

institutions  of  the  city  are  those  developed  by  American  experi- 
ence in  the  working  out  of  American  ideals.  The  city  government 
may  rest  for  support  upon  the  vote  of  the  German,  Irish,  or  Scan- 
dinavian colonies;  but  the  city  government  is  not  German,  Irish, 
or  Scandinavian.  The  children  and  their  parents  may  speak 
Polish,  Hungarian,  Russian,  or  Yiddish;  but  these  same  children 
are  to  be  trained  for  a  civic  life  that  has  grown  out  of  American 
experience  and  Anglo-Saxon  tradition,  and  for  an  industrial  life 
based  on  new  world  ideas  of  industrial  organization  and  commer- 
cial justice.  The  churches  in  the  foreign  neighborhoods,  as  a 
means  of  self-preservation,  may  attempt  to  maintain  the  national 
language  through  the  parochial  schools;  but  the  child  who  leaves 
the  parochial  school  must  be  fitted  into  an  American  community 
life  in  which  the  mastery  of  the  English  tongue  is  not  merely  a 
necessary  tool  but  the  only  medium  through  which  he  may  share 
the  most  valuable  products  of  American  civilization.  The  com- 
munity may  rob  itself  when  it  fails  to  realize  and  appropriate  the 
cultural  contribution  which  may  be  made  by  these  groups  to  the 
collective  life  which  in  the  end  they  must  help  to  work  out;  but 
it  robs  the  individual  child  and  the  coming  generation  in  a  much 
greater  degree  when  it  fails  to  demand  for  every  member  of  every 
foreign  colony  the  opportunity  of  acquiring  at  the  earliest  possible 
moment  the  use  of  the  English  language  and  an  understanding  of 
American  institutions. 

Nor  is  the  problem  of  separateness  of  life  and  ideals  limited 
to  the  so-called  foreign  groups.  Difference  of  language  is  an 
effective  barrier,  but  difference  of  color  is  a  more  effective  and  a 
more  permanent  one.  It  is  necessary,  therefore,  for  many  pur- 
poses, to  class  with  the  various  foreign  colonies  the  30,000  native 
colored  citizens  of  Chicago,  who  although  they  do  not  suffer  from 
lack  of  a  common  language,  are  barred  from  the  complete  enjoy- 
ment of  many  so-called  common  rights  by  a  prejudice  which  mani- 
fests itself  in  many  and  subtle  ways. 

There  are,  then,  included  in  the  population  of  Chicago,  but 
excluded  from  much  of  the  city's  life,  large  national  and  racial 
groups  which  are  maintaining  a  more  or  less  independent  com- 
munity life,  and  the  problem  of  the  adjustment  of  these  groups 
to  American  standards  is  of  very  great  importance  from  the  point 

56 


THE   CHILD  OF  THE   IMMIGRANT 

of  view  of  the  children.  These  children  are  held  in  a  sense  to  a 
double  standard;  they  are  inevitably  drawn  to  the  American 
manners  and  customs  which  they  meet  in  the  school,  on  the  street, 
and  in  the  factory,  while  in  their  own  homes  the  old  European 
standards  of  life  are  strictly  maintained.  The  importance  of  this 
problem  of  the  children  in  the  extra-American  groups  is  indicated 
by  the  following  table,  which  shows  how  large  a  proportion  of  the 


TABLE  II. — GENERAL  NATIVITY  OF  PARENTS  OF  DELINQUENT  CHIL- 
DREN BROUGHT  TO  COURT  BETWEEN  JULY  I,  1899,  AND  JUNE 
30,  1909.    (DATA  FROM  COURT  RECORDS.) 


General  Nativity 

PARENTS  OF  DELINQUENT  CHILDREN 

Boys 

Girls 

Both 

Number 

Per  Cent 

Number 

PerCent 

Number 

PerCent 

American 
White  .... 
Colored  (Negro). 
Foreign   .... 
Not  reported 

1938 
432 
8467 
1391 

16.9 
3.8 
74.2 

12.2 

563 
172 
1853 
346 

20.3 

6.2 

66.9 
12.5 

2501 
604 
10,320 
1737 

17.6 

4-3 
72.8 

12.2 

Total  .... 
Counted  twice  a 

12,228 
815 

IO7.I 
7-1 

2934 
164 

105.9 
5-9 

15,162 
979 

106.9 
6.9 

Total  .... 

11,413 

1  00.0 

2770 

IOO.O 

14.183 

IOO.O 

a  In  cases  where  the  child's  parents  were  not  of  the  same  "general  nativity," 
the  child  was  counted  as  belonging  in  both  groups.  To  have  6.9  per  cent  of  the 
cases  "counted  twice"  seemed  on  the  whole  less  objectionable  than  to  make  the 
more  complicated  presentation  of  separate  tables  for  fathers  and  mothers,  which 
was  used  for  the  smaller  number  of  fathers  and  mothers  in  Table  12. 


delinquent  children  of  the  court  come  from  the  foreign  neighbor- 
hoods in  which  the  difficult  problem  of  adjustment  is  being  worked 
out. 

The  word  "foreign"  as  used  in  this  table  is  obviously  an 
inexact  term,  but  the  court  records  unfortunately  do  not  give  the 
exact  data  needed  to  determine  the  nativity  of  the  parents.  The 
fathers  and  mothers  are  merely  described,  for  example,  as  Polish, 

57 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND   THE    HOME 

German,  Lithuanian,  Italian,  or  American,  and  no  clue  is  given 
as  to  whether  the  parents  were  really  born  in  Poland  or  Germany, 
Lithuania  or  Italy,  or  whether  they  are  American  born  children  of 
immigrants  from  these  countries,  who  perhaps  still  use  the  lan- 
guage and  follow  many  of  the  customs  of  their  parents,  and  who 
naturally  speak  of  themselves  as  Polish  or  German  instead  of 
American.  In  the  classification  as  presented  in  Table  n,  there- 
fore, the  term  American  includes  all  who  call  themselves  American, 
and  does  not  correspond  with  the  census  classification  "  native  born 
of  native  parents."*  That  is,  it  should  be  clearly  understood  that 
in  this  table  compiled  from  the  rather  inaccurate  data  of  the  court 
records  there  are  included  among  the  Americans  many  who  should 
be  properly  classed  as  "native  born  of  foreign  parents."  This 
confusion  is  due  to  the  fact  that  in  the  court  no  definite  question 
regarding  country  of  birth  is  asked,  and  the  nationality  that  is 
entered  on  the  records  is  therefore  not  likely  to  be  strictly  accurate 
and  is  determined  largely  by  the  language  spoken.  In  a  large  num- 
ber of  cases,  where  the  parents,  or  at  any  rate  the  grandparents  of 
the  child  were  born  abroad,  the  court  record  is  merely  "American," 
and  in  many  other  cases  the  parents  who  are  American  born  are 
called  foreign  because  they  have  been  brought  up  in  foreign  habits 
of  life  and  speech.  The  fact  that  in  so  many  cases  no  information 
regarding  nationality  is  given,  is  further  evidence  of  the  inexact- 
ness of  the  court  records.  Parents  whose  nationality  was  not 
reported  were  probably  English-speaking  and  not  characteristically 
distinguished  as  members  of  any  national  group,  and  in  these 
tables  the  majority  of  them  could  doubtless  have  been  correctly 
grouped  with  the  Americans.  They  were  not  so  classified,  how- 
ever, because  this  might  seem  to  add  a  further  inaccuracy  to  those 
which  already  existed. 

More  accurate  data  from  the  family  schedules  eliminate 
this  unknown  factor  and  show  very  plainly  that  the  great  majority 
of  the  foreign  group  were  actually  foreign  born.  These  data,  which 
are  presented  in  Table  12,  show  that  392  fathers  of  delinquent 
boys  were  foreign  born  and  that  only  45  claimed  to  be  native  born 
of  foreign  parentage;  that  389  mothers  were  actually  foreign 
born  while  only  69  were  native  born  of  foreign  parentage.  If  we 

*  See  Table  13,  p.  62. 
58 


THE   CHILD   OF  THE    IMMIGRANT 

add  together  the  three  groups  "foreign  born,"  "native  born  of 
foreign  parents,"  and  "other  foreign,"  that  is,  all  those  who  are  not 
American,  either  white  or  colored,  we  have  a  total  of  478  fathers 
and  489  mothers  who  claimed  to  be  either  immigrants  themselves 
or  the  children  of  immigrants.  Of  these,  392,  or  82  per  cent,  of 
the  fathers,  and  389,  or  79  per  cent,  of  the  mothers  were  immi- 
grants. There  is  unfortunately  an  element  of  uncertainty  even 
here;  for  in  the  case  of  41  fathers  and  of  3 1  mothers,  we  know  only 


TABLE  12. — GENERAL  NATIVITY  OF  PARENTS  OF  584  DELINQUENT 
BOYS  BROUGHT  TO  COURT  BETWEEN  JULY  I,  1899,  AND 
JUNE  30,  1909.  (DATA  FROM  FAMILY  SCHEDULES.) 


NUMBER  OF 

PER  CENT  OF 

General  Nativity 

Fathers 

Mothers 

Both 

Fathers 

Mothers 

Both 

American 

White        .       .       . 

81 

72 

153 

13.9 

12.3 

13.1 

Colored  (Negro) 

25 

23 

48 

4-3 

4.0 

4.1 

Foreign  born 

392 

389 

781 

67.1 

66.6 

66.9 

Native    born,    foreign 

parents 

45 

69 

114 

7-7 

n.8 

9.8 

Other  foreigna 

4i 

31 

72 

7.0 

5-3 

6.1 

Total  .... 

584 

584 

1168 

IOO.O 

IOO.O 

IOO.O 

aThis  group  includes  those  whose  nationality  is  not  American  but  whose 
nativity  could  not  be  more  accurately  determined.  They  may  be  either  foreign 
born,  or  native  born  of  foreign  parents. 


that  they  were  not  called  American.  Many  of  these  were  cases 
where  the  father  or  mother  was  dead  or  had  deserted.  The  chil- 
dren or  the  remaining  parent  whom  the  investigator  saw  might 
report  the  nationality  as  German  or  Polish,  remembering  the 
language  the  other  parent  had  spoken,  although  they  were  not  sure 
whether  he  had  been  born  abroad  or  not.  Sometimes  both  of  the 
parents  were  dead  and  the  children  did  not  know  their  place  of 
birth  but  remembered  them  as  "foreign." 

This  table  should  also  be  studied  in  connection  with  Table 

59 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE    HOME 

1 1  (page  57),  which  showed  that  the  parents  of  74  per  cent  of  the 
delinquent  boys  and  of  67  per  cent  of  the  delinquent  girls  did  not 
call  themselves  American  and  belonged,  therefore,  to  a  group  which 
was  called  foreign.  It  was  pointed  out  in  the  discussion  following 
Table  1 1  that  some  of  the  parents  who  were  entered  as  foreign  may 
have  been  native  born  children  of  foreign  parents,  but  it  is  prob- 
able that  the  majority  were  actually  foreign  born,  since  those 
who  are  of  the  second  generation  usually  prefer  to  call  themselves 
American.  Table  12  indicates  that  this  statement  is  undoubt- 
edly correct,  since  the  inquiry  made  in  the  homes  showed  that 
80  per  cent  of  those  who  did  not  call  themselves  Americans  *  were 
actually  foreign  born.  This  seems  to  be  further  evidence  of  the 
fact  to  which  attention  has  already  been  called — that  it  is  the 
practice  of  those  who  are  in  this  country  for  the  first  generation, 
particularly  those  who  retain  foreign  speech,  to  call  themselves 
Polish  or  Italian  or  Lithuanian,  as  the  case  may  be.  Those  of  the 
second  generation  may  be  classified  by  the  census  in  the  group 
"native  born  of  foreign  parentage"  but  they  call  themselves 
"American." 

It  is  of  interest  in  connection  with  these  tables  dealing  with 
the  nativity  of  the  parents  of  the  children  of  the  court,  to  ascer- 
tain how  the  proportion  of  parents  in  each  of  these  groups  com- 
pares with  the  proportion  which  each  group  forms  of  the  married 
population  in  Chicago.f  A  comparison  of  Table  12  with  Table 
1 3  indicates  that  the  number  of  delinquent  parents  in  the  foreign 


*  These  are  distinguished  in  Table  12  as  "Foreign  born"  (781);  "Native 
born,  foreign  parents"  (114);  and  "Other  foreign"  (72);  that  is,  a  total  of  967. 
Of  these  the  foreign  born  (781)  are  80  per  cent.  In  Table  n,  they  are  merely 
"foreign." 

t  An  interesting  question  which  suggests  itself  at  this  point,  but  one  to  which 
the  court  records  furnish  no  accurate  answer,  is  the  question  of  how  the  delinquent 
children  of  the  court  are  distributed  among  the  different  nationalities,  and  how  the 
percentage  of  delinquent  children  contributed  by  any  national  group  compares  with 
the  percentage  which  that  same  group  forms  of  the  total  population  of  Chicago. 
The  table  which  is  given  below,  however,  presents  only  the  data  concerning  nation- 
ality of  parents  from  the  court  records.  Unfortunately  the  court  records  of  nation- 
ality have  not  been  kept  with  sufficient  accuracy  to  justify  the  making  of  such  com- 
parisons. Although  both  place  of  birth  and  language  were  learned  for  a  very  con- 
siderable number  of  parents  of  the  584  boys  for  whom  family  schedules  were  ob-. 
tained,  the  numbers  were  too  small  to  justify  drawing  any  trustworthy  conclusion 

60 


THE   CHILD   OF  THE    IMMIGRANT 


group  is  disproportionately  large.*  That  is,  Table  1 3  shows  that  the 
foreign  born  form  57  per  cent  of  the  married  population  of  Chicago, 
while  according  to  Table  12,  at  least  67  per  cent  of  the  parents  of 
the  delinquent  boys  of  the  court  were  foreign  born,  and  there  is 


with  regard  to  tendency  of  any  national  group  towards  juvenile  delinquency.    The 
figures  from  the  court  records  are  as  follows: 

NATIONALITY  OF  PARENTS  OF  BOYS  AND  GIRLS  BROUGHT  INTO  COURT 
FROM  1899-1909 


Nationality 

NUMBER 

PER  CENT 

Boys 

Girls 

Boys 

Girls 

American 
White    ...                 ..... 

1938 
432 

499 
396 
127 

2OI  I 
1566 
698 
1755 
415 
644 
356 
1391 

563 
172 

109 

1  02 
56 

513 
269 

66 
342 

9i 
185 

IOO 

346 

17.0 
3-8 

4-4 
3-5 
i.i 
17.6 

13-7 
6.1 

15.4 

3* 
5.6 

3-i 

12.2 

20.3 

6.2 

3-9 
3-7 

2.O 
19.2 

9-7 
2.4 
12.4 

*i 

3.6 
12.5 

Colored  (Negro)     
Foreign  Born  or  Native  Born  of  Foreign 
Parentage: 
Bohemian    

English              

French    
German       
Irish       
Italian    
Polish     

Russian        
Scandinavian    
Miscellaneous   

Nationality  not  reported  

Total  

12,228 
8l5 

2934 
164 

I07.I 

7-1 

105.9 
5-9 

Counted  twice  a       

Total  . 

11,413 

2770 

IOO.O 

IOO.O 

a  In  cases  where  the  child's  parents  were  of  different  nationalities,  the  child 
was  counted  as  belonging  in  both  national  groups. 

*It  is  obvious  that  all  the  terms  in  the  census  classification  which  are  used 
in  Table  13  cannot  be  compared  with  those  either  in  Table  1 1  or  Table  12.  It  has 
been  pointed  out  in  the  discussion  of  Table  1 1  and  Table  12  that  the  group  called 
American  probably  includes  many  whose  parents  were  born  abroad  and  it  does  not 
therefore  correspond  with  the  group  "native  white,  native  parents,"  in  the  census 
classification.  On  the  other  hand,  the  group  "foreign  born"  in  Table  12  does  cor- 
respond quite  accurately  with  the  group  "foreign  born"  in  Table  13,  except  for 
the  fact  that  in  Table  12  the  group  is  larger  than  the  table  indicates,  since  some  of 
those  in  the  group  called  "other  foreign"  belong  in  the  "foreign  born"  group. 

61 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

reason  to  believe  that  the  true  percentage  is  above  67.  This  must 
not  of  course^  be  taken  'to  mean  that  children  of  foreign  born  par- 
ents are  "worse"  than  children  of  native  born  parents;  it  only 
means  that  the  difference  in  the  amount  and  kind  of  protection 
offered  to  children  of  the  foreign  group  brings  them  more  easily 
within  reach  of  the  court.  The  offenses  of  American  children  may 
be  much  more  flagrant  than  those  of  immigrant  children,  but  the 
wrongdoing  of  the  child  of  American  parents  is  not  so  likely  to  be 
discovered  outside  of  the  family.  The  child  in  a  crowded  immi- 


TABLE    13. — GENERAL  NATIVITY  OF  MARRIED   POPULATION   OF 

CHICAGO  a 


General  Nativity 

Number 

Per  Cent 

Native  white,  native  parents       .... 
Native  white,  foreign  parents      .... 
Foreign  born  white        
Total  colored          

102,582 
129,202 
319,892 
12,953  b 

iS 
23 

57 

2 

Total    

564,629 

100 

a  This  table  includes  not  only  the  married  population  but  also  those  included 
in  the  census  classification  as  "married"  and  "divorced."  All  persons  under 
twenty-five  years  of  age  as  well  as  those  fifty-five  years  of  age  or  over  were  ex- 
cluded because  unlikely  to  be  the  parents  of  children  of  juvenile  court  age.  Data 
from  the  Twelfth  U.  S.  Census,  1900.  Vol.  II,  p.  314,  Table  32.  Male  and  female 
,in  each  group  added  together. 

b  This  group  is,  of  course,  almost  entirely  Negro,  but  it  includes  1285  colored 
persons  other  than  Negro,  chiefly  1209  Chinese.  Since  the  number  was  so  small, 
less  than  one-tenth  of  i  per  cent  of  the  total  population,  it  seemed  unnecessary 
to  make  a  separate  category. 

grant  quarter  who  does  wrong,  quickly  comes  to  the  attention  of 
neighbors,  police,  and  probation  officers;  and  his  offense,  though 
perhaps  more  trivial  than  the  American  child's,  may  involve  much 
more  serious  consequences. 

Not  only  is  it  true  that  a  disproportionately  large  number 
of  these  parents  are  immigrants,  but  many  of  them  are  immigrants 
who  did  not  come  to  this  country  when  they  were  young,  and  it  is 
obvious  that  the  difficulty  of  adjustment  confronting  members  of 
the  foreign  group  is  greater  for  those  who  come  over  comparatively 
late  in  life  than  for  those  who  come  over  in  early  childhood. 

62 


THE   CHILD  OF  THE    IMMIGRANT 

TABLE    14. — AGE   AT  IMMIGRATION   OF   FOREIGN   BORN    PARENTS  OF 
DELINQUENT   BOYS 

Age  at  Immigration  Patters  Matters  Both 

Under  5  years       ...  4  5  .9 


5  years  and  under  10  years 
10  15 

15  20 

20  "     25     " 

25     "       "    over 


13  16  29 

10  22  32 

61  ]  Over          84}  Over         145  "1    Over 

no  j-  /  5  years  107  J-  75  y^ars  217  >    75 


I74j    345          128  J    ^79          302] 

(92.7%)  (88.1%)  (90.5%) 


Total  for  whom  information 

is  given       .       .       .       .372  362  734 

Data  in  the  family  schedules  relating  to  parents'  age,  at  im- 
migration, presented  in  Table  14,  show  that  out  of  372  foreign 
born  fathers  and  362  foreign  born  mothers  for  whom  this  informa- 
tion was  secured,  93  per  cent  of  the  fathers  and  88  per  cent  of  the 
mothers  passed  the  first  fifteen  years  of  their  life  in  the  countries 
from  which  they  immigrated,  and  that  47  per  cent  of  the  fathers 
and  35  per  cent  of  the  mothers  did  not  come  over  until  they  were 
twenty-five. 

TABLE  15. — NUMBER  OF  FOREIGN  BORN  PARENTS  a  (OF  280  DELIN- 
QUENT BOYS)  FROM  OTHER  THAN  ENGLISH-SPEAKING  COUNTRIES 
WHO  WERE  ABLE  TO  SPEAK,  READ,  OR  WRITE  ENGLISH 

Number  of  Parents  Fathers  Mothers 

Unable  to  speak,  read,  or  write  English 42  79 

Able  to  speak  English  but  unable  to  read  or  write  .  98  115 

Able  to  speak  and  read  English  but  unable  to  write  21  27 

Able  to  speak,  read,  and  write  English 117  59 

Total  for  whom  information  was  given b     .       .       .  278  280 

a  These  data  relate  of  course  only  to  the  parents  who  came  from  non-Eng- 
lish-speaking countries. 

b  The  total  number  of  foreign  born  parents  from  non-English-speaking 
countries  was  344;  in  66  cases,  therefore,  information  as  to  their  knowledge  of 
English  could  not  be  obtained.  Similarly  in  the  case  of  69  mothers  no  report  was 
obtained. 

One  result  of  this  late  immigration  which  presents  an  addi- 
tional obstacle  in  the  way  of  adjustment  to  American  life  is  the 
failure  to  learn  English.  From  a  study  of  Table  15,  which  shows 
the  number  of  parents  able  to  speak,  read,  or  write  English,  it 
appears  that  42,  or  1 5  per  cent,  of  the  fathers  and  79,  or  28  per 

63  * 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE    HOME 

cent,  of  the  mothers  about  whom  information  was  obtained  spoke 
only  their  native  tongue  and  knew  no  English  at  all,  while  a  very 
considerable  number  of  the  others,  although  able  to  speak  brokenly, 
could  neither  read  nor  write. 

With  so  many  cases  of  late  immigration  among  the  parents, 
it  is  to  be  expected  that  a  considerable  number  of  children  should 
be  themselves  foreign  born;  but  unfortunately  the  court  records 
do  not  furnish  any  data  on  this  point.  Such  information  was  ob- 
tained, however,  for  those  boys  whose  families  were  visited  by  the  in- 
vestigators, and  the  schedules  show  that  65  out  of  584  were  born  in 
Europe.  The  limitations  implied  in  the  fact  that  the  child  is  not  even 
of  American  birth  can  be  better  understood  perhaps  in  the  later 
discussion  of  the  problem  of  the  school  in  relation  to  the  needs  of 
the  immigrant  child.  The  great  majority  of  our  more  recent  im- 
migrants are  from  countries  where  education  is  limited  in  scope 
and  is  still  in  large  measure  the  privilege  of  a  few;*  and  it  is 
necessarily  difficult  for  them  to  realize  its  importance  in  a 
country  where  it  is  both  free  and  compulsory.  It  is  clear,  how- 
ever, that  there  must  inevitably  be  from  time  to  time  pathetic 
cases  of  foreign  born  children  brought  to  court  as  delinquents 
who  were  really  in  every  sense  dependent.  There  is,  for  ex- 
ample, the  case  of  two  little  Italian  boys  who  were  brought  to 
court  for  stealing  some  berries  from  a  wagon  on  South  Water  Street. 
One  of  the  boys  had  no  home  and  had  never  been  in  school.  His 
parents  still  lived  in  Italy,  and  he  had  come  over  with  an  older 
brother,  who  was  not  a  good  man  and  took  no  care  of  him.  The 
other  boy  had  come  over  with  his  poverty  stricken  parents  and  was 
one  of  four  children  living  in  a  miserable  home.  He  was,  however, 
little  better  off  than  the  boy  who  came  alone.  The  family  had 
immigrated  when  he  was  ten  years  old,  neither  the  father  nor 
mother  could  speak  English,  and  this  boy  did  not  go  to  school  until 
he  was  thirteen.  The  father  was  a  common  laborer,  usually  un- 

*  The  report  of  the  Commissioner  General  of  Immigration  for  the  year 
ended  June  30,  1910  (see  Table  VI  I,  Sex,  Age,  Literacy,  etc.,  p.  20),  showed  that  the 
largest  number  of  immigrants  of  any  single  racial  group  coming  during  that  year 
were  the  192,673  South  Italians,  172,608  of  whom  were  fourteen  years  of  age  or 
older,  and  of  these  5 1 .8  per  cent  were  unable  to  read  or  write  in  their  own  language. 
Next  in  numbers  were  the  128,348  Poles  with  118,550  over  fourteen,  of  whom  35 
per  cent  were  illiterate.  In  the  next  largest  group,  designated  as  "Hebrew," 
there  were  84,260,  with  62,391  over  fourteen  and  28.8  per  cent  illiterate. 

64 


THE   CHILD   OF   THE    IMMIGRANT 

employed,  and  the  family  lived  in  one  room.  If  these  children  of 
illiterate  immigrant  parents  cannot  be  placed  in  school  soon  after 
their  arrival  in  this  country,  the  way  to  delinquency  through  de- 
pendency is  sure  to  be  open  to  them. 

One  of  the  most  important  facts  to  be  noted  with  regard 
to  the  foreign  group  with  which  the  court  is  concerned  is  that  it 
is  also  a  rural  group.  The  most  casual  observation  in  the  court 
room  gives  the  impression  that  the  parents  who  stand  with  their 
children  before  the  judge  are  country  people.  And  this  impression 
is  confirmed  by  the  data  in  the  family  schedules,*  which  show 
that  64  per  cent  of  the  fathers  and  69  per  cent  of  the  mothers 
of  delinquent  boys,  whose  place  of  residence  before  immigration 
could  be  learned,  lived  in  the  country  or  in  very  small  towns,  and 
that  only  about  one-third  of  the  parents  came  from  what  they  called 
cities.  The  answers  to  the  questions  asking  for  the  occupations 
of  the  parents  before  immigration  threw  further  light  upon  this 
point.  The  family  schedules  showed  the  employment  before  immi- 
gration of  194  fathers  of  delinquent  boys,  and  of  these  95,  or  49 
per  cent,  had  been  farmers  or  farm  laborers  in  the  old  country. 
And  what  was  of  equal  importance  as  further  evidence  of  the  diffi- 
culty of  adjustment,  was  the  fact  that  in  no  single  instance  was 
any  one  of  these  men  engaged  in  a  pursuit  connected  with  agri- 
culture in  this  country. 

The  rural  habit  of  thought  which  the  immigrant  brings  with 
him  naturally  manifests  itself  in  many  ways.  Country  people 


*  These  data,  which  are  presented  below,  are  not  altogether  trustworthy, 
since  it  was  sometimes  difficult  to  find  out  just  what  kind  of  a  community  the 
European  place  of  residence  had  been.  In  general  it  was  easy  to  ascertain  if  they 
had  lived  in  the  country  but  it  was  hard  to  distinguish  between  the  city  and  the 
small  village;  investigators  felt  that  the  village  was  often  glorified  into  a  city.  In 
so  far,  however,  as  the  table  is  inaccurate,  it  presents  an  understatement  of  the 
number  who  lived  in  the  village  and  country  and  the  inaccuracy  does  not  therefore 
vitiate  the  point  made  in  the  text. 

PLACE  OF  RESIDENCE 

City  Country  or  Small  Town 

Parent                   Number       Per  Cent  -          Number       Per  Cent  Total 

Father.       .       .     123                36                          215                64  338 

Mother        .       .     102               31                          225               69  327 

Total       .       .     225  34  440  66  665 

65 


THE    DELINQUENT   CHILD    AND   THE    HOME 

are  on  the  whole  less  adaptable  than  city  people,  less  flexible,  and 
less  accustomed  to  responding  to  a  large  variety  of  stimuli.  New 
forms  of  neighborly  relationship,  new  forms  of  property,  new 
forms  of  social  intercourse,  are  more  slowly  understood  in  their 
full  significance. 

It  is  clear  then  that  in  these  foreign  groups  there  are  numer- 
ous influences  at  work  which  tend  to  delay  the  process  of  Ameri- 
canization; and  this  delay  must  in  many  cases  have  serious  conse- 
quences for  the  children  of  the  family.  The  point  of  view  of  the 
parents  with  regard  to  much  that  is  considered  essential  to  the 
proper  up  bringing  of  the  child  often  remains  singularly  un-Ameri- 
can. For  example,  the  immigrant  child  frequently  suffers  from 
the  fact  that  the  parents  do  not  understand  that  the  community 
has  a  right  to  say  that  children  under  a  certain  age  must  be  kept  in 
school.  It  seems,  for  example,  unimportant  to  the  Italian  peasant, 
who  as  a  gloriously  paid  street  laborer  begins  to  cherish  a  vision  of 
prosperity,  whether  his  little  girls  go  to  school  or  not.  It  is,  on 
the  contrary,  of  great  importance  that  a  sufficient  dower  be  ac- 
cumulated to  get  them  good  husbands;  and  to  take  them  from 
school  and  put  them  to  work  is,  therefore,  only  an  attempt  to  help 
them  accomplish  this  desirable  end.  In  cases  of  this  sort  the  pro- 
bation officer  proves  an  invaluable  friend  to  the  girl  or  boy  whose 
parents  do  not  understand  how  necessary  education  is  to  the  child. 
Thus,  one  boy  who  came  from  a  clean,  pleasant  home  of  eight  rooms, 
whose  father  was  a  baker  owning  his  house  and  earning  a  good  in- 
come, was  brought  into  court  at  the  age  of  twelve  for  breaking  into 
a  store  and  stealing,  and  was  put  on  probation.  When  he  was 
thirteen  he  was  confirmed  and  his  parents  thought  that  he  ought  to 
stop  school  and  go  to  work,  although  they  did  not  need  the  money. 
He  was  brought  into  court  again,  this  time  for  truancy,  and  was 
again  put  on  probation.  He  was  paroled  to  one  of  the  proba- 
tion officers,  and  her  relations  with  the  boy  were  very  friendly. 
According  to  the  schedule,  "  the  parents  were  bitter  against  the 
officer  at  first  because  she  compelled  the  boy  to  go  to  school,  but 
afterwards  they  saw  that  it  was  for  the  boy's  own  good." 

Not  only  in  the  matter  of  compulsory  education,  but  in 
many  other  ways,  the  slow  Americanization  of  the  parents  reacts 
injuriously  upon  the  children.  Obviously,  many  things  which  are 

66 


THE    CHILD   OF   THE    IMMIGRANT 

familiar  to  the  child  in  the  facts  of  daily  intercourse,  in  the  street, 
or  in  the  school,  will  remain  unknown  or  unintelligible  to  the 
father  and  mother.  It  has  become  a  commonplace  that  this 
cheap  wisdom  on  the  part  of  the  boy  or  girl  leads  to  a  reversal 
of  the  usual  relationship  between  parent  and  child.  The  child  who 
knows  English  is  the  interpreter  who  makes  the  necessary  explan- 
ations for  the  mother  to  the  landlord,  the  grocer,  the  sanitary 
inspector,  the  charity  visitor,  and  the  teacher  or  truant  officer. 
It  is  the  child  again  who  often  interviews  the  "boss,"  finds  the 
father  a  job,  and  sees  him  through  the  onerous  task  of  "joining  the 
union."  The  father  and  mother  grow  accustomed  to  trusting  the 
child's  version  of  what  "  they  all  do  in  America"  and  gradually  find 
themselves  at  a  great  disadvantage  in  trying  to  maintain  parental 
control.  The  child  develops  a  sense  of  superiority  towards  the 
parent  and  a  resulting  disregard  of  those  parental  warnings  which, 
although  they  are  not  based  on  American  experience,  rest  on  com- 
mon notions  of  right  and  wrong,  and  would,  if  heeded,  safeguard 
the  child.  In  the  case  of  a  little  Italian  boy  who  was  first  brought 
into  court  at  the  age  of  nine  and  has  developed  into  a  persistent 
"repeater,"  appearing  there  fairly  regularly  once  a  year  ever  since, 
the  child  was  described  as  undersized  and  underfed,  without  care 
or  discipline.  The  record,  however,  also  shows  that  the  mother, 
a  home  "finisher"  who  had  been  deserted  by  her  husband,  could 
speak  no  English  and  was  very  dependent  on  the  boy,  who  in  turn 
was  "very  bossy"  with  her  although  he  gave  her  all  his  wages. 

It  is  clear  that  family  friction  often  results  from  the  differ- 
ence in  understanding  between  the  foreign  parent  and  the  American 
child,  and  that  many  times  the  waywardness  of  the  child  grows 
out  of  such  misunderstandings.  A  little  Russian  boy,  who  also 
developed  into  a  repeater,  was  first  brought  to  court  because  he 
had  stolen  a  dollar  from  his  father's  vest,  and  his  father  said  that 
he  had  stolen  other  small  sums  at  different  times.  The  comments 
made  in  his  case  were  that  the  family  did  not  understand  the  boy 
and  taunted  him  with  having  been  arrested.  It  is  of  interest, 
however,  that  according  to  the  record  "the  mother  speaks  very 
little  English  and  thinks  that  in  America  boys  want  to  be  men 
too  soon,  and  that  the  parents  ought  to  control  them  until  they 
get  to  be  twenty  years  old." 

67 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

Often  the  parent,  because  he  has  failed  to  understand  his 
new  surroundings  and  has  been  unable  to  adjust  himself,  cannot 
appreciate  fully  the  perils  that  surround  his  child  or  adequately 
protect  him  from  such  as  are  apprehended.  To  understand  the 
circumstances  which  are  bringing  many  of  these  children  into 
court,  to  see  things  if  possible  as  they  see  them,  there  should  be 
especially  kept  in  mind  the  fact  that  it  is  difficult  for  peasants 
from  Southern  Europe  to  adjust  their  rustic  standards  to  the  con- 
ditions of  life  in  the  tenement  quarters  of  one  of  our  great  cities. 

For  these  immigrants  who  have  not  yet  parted  with  their 
European  habits  of  thought  and  life,  there  must  be  special  difficulty 
in  appreciating  different  forms  of  property  where  conditions  are 
in  some  respects  analogous  to  those  prevailing  in  the  old  country. 
There,  in  a  rural  district,  when  a  wagonload  of  farm  produce 
passes  by  and  drops  vegetables  or  fruit  or  grain,  the  articles  left 
along  the  road  are  abandoned,  and  the  road  being  public,  no 
trespass  is  committed  by  one  who  goes  along  and  picks  them  up. 
Or,  after  the  harvesters  have  gone  over  the  field,  if  the  peasants  go 
along  to  glean,  they  are  welcome  to  what  they  gather.  There 
was,  too,  in  the  older  days,  the  common  of  estovers,  or  right  to 
take  the  wood  from  the  lord's  land  for  repair  or  fuel. 

It  is,  therefore,  obviously  difficult  for  these  children  or  their 
parents  to  understand  why  the  sweepings  from  the  empty  freight 
cars  should  not  be  appropriated  to  feed  the  chickens  or  pigeons  at 
home;  or  why  coal  dropped  from  uncovered  cars  should  not  be  car- 
ried home.  On  the  railroad  tracks,  however,  trespass  is  committed 
by  anyone  who  goes  upon  them  for  purposes  not  connected  with 
the  business  of  the  company;  and  if  a  boy  or  a  number  of  boys,  in 
the  absence  of  all  facilities  for  play,  find  there  not  only  the  desired 
space,  but  the  excitement  growing  out  of  the  sense  of  being  on 
forbidden  territory,  they  are  not  only  endangering  their  lives  and 
limbs,  but  committing  a  legal  wrong,  even  if  the  nature  of  it  is  not 
clear  to  them. 

Coal  left  on  sidings  in  uncovered  cars,  grain  left  to  be  un- 
loaded, unguarded  cars  loaded  with  valuable  freight  left  where 
groups  of  little  boys  can  readily  gain  access  to  them,  make  depre- 
dations easy.  By  such  means  a  constant  and  often  irresistible 
temptation  is  offered  to  these  simple  people,  who  are  pressed  with 

68 


THE    CHILD   OF   THE    IMMIGRANT 

need,  unintelligent  as  to  their  new  surroundings,  and  confused  with 
the  problems  of  a  crowded  neighborhood  through  which,  or  in  the 
the  midst  of  which,  the  great  conveyances  pass  or  linger  in  tan- 
talizing suggestion  of  a  plenty  in  which  the  tempted  may  not  share. 

If  one  studies  the  old  European  peasant  background  of  the 
lives  of  our  recent  immigrants,  it  is  not  difficult  to  understand  why 
their  children  should  be  brought  to  court  in  disproportionately 
large  numbers  as  delinquent  boys  and  girls.  If  the  immigrant 
parents  in  leaving  the  old  for  the  strangely  new  home  have  not 
come  to  new  standards  of  right  and  wrong,  they  have  come  to  such 
new  conditions  of  life  and  work,  to  such  new  relationships,  that 
confusion  of  the  old  standards  may  easily  result.  Even  the  old 
simple  virtues  seem  to  lead  to  disaster;  thrift  often  means  sacrific- 
ing the  children's  education,  and  parental  discipline  after  the 
European  fashion  alienates  the  affection  of  the  Americanized  child. 

It  is,  of  course,  never  possible  to  say  to  what  extent  the  child's 
experience  may  bear  on  his  delinquency,  but  when  the  parents  are 
thus  unable  to  adjust  themselves  to  their  surroundings,  when  the 
child  becomes  a  precocious  and  an  unnatural  family  interpreter  or 
spokesman,  and  the  normal  restraihts  are  in  large  measure  removed, 
the  child  has  no  instructor,  no  guide,  no  guardian  in  the  intricate 
relationships  thrust  upon  him. 

The  appearance  in  court,  which  often  seems  to  be  his  mis- 
fortune, may  not  infrequently  be  the  child's  salvation  if  the  proba- 
tion officer  is  able  to  lead  both  the  child  and  the  family  to  a  better 
understanding  of  what  the  community  is  at  once  asking  of  them 
and  offering  to  them.  The  probation  officer  is  also  of  special  ser- 
vice in  helping  to  keep  the  immigrant  child  in  school.  It  has 
already  been  pointed  out  that  the  problem  of  getting  the  children 
of  newly  arrived  immigrants  into  the  schools  is  one  of  pressing  im- 
portance. Those  children  especially  who  are  near  the  age  of  four- 
teen, will,  unless  their  parents  or  guardians  are  promptly  made  to 
understand  the  compulsory  education  law,  lose  what  is  perhaps 
their  only  chance  of  schooling,  and  what  is  certainly  their  best 
chance  of  initiation  into  American  life,  and  their  best  introduction 
to  those  new  conditions  with  which  they  must  become  familiar. 


69 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  POOR  CHILD:  THE  PROBLEM  OF  POVERTY 

CHILDREN  who  do  wrong  may  be  found  in  homes  of  every 
economic  and  social  grade.    We  are  dealing  here,  how- 
ever, only  with  those  children  who  become  wards  of 
the  court,  and  our    inquiry  is    concerned,   therefore,  with  the 
families   that   may  be  said   to  form   the  court's  constituency. 
Children  in  families  of  great  wealth  may  be  guilty  of  much  more 
serious  offenses  than  are  the  children  of  the  poor;  but  the  offenses 
of  the  latter  bring  them  more  quickly  within  the  reach  of  the  law. 
Moreover,  as  will  appear  in  the  discussion,  poverty  in  itself  is 
often  a  direct  and  compelling  cause  of  delinquency. 

A  study  of  the  family  schedules  which  were  obtained  for 
the  children  brought  into  court  during  the  year  1903-04  seemed 
to  indicate  that  the  court  dealt  with  families  from  four  large 
economic  groups.  We  have  called  these  (I)  very  poor  families, 
(II)  poor  families,  (III)  families  in  fairly  comfortable  circum- 
stances, and  finally  (IV)  families  whose  homes  apparently  were 
quite  comfortable.  We  did  not  find  any  families  that  we  could 
call  "wealthy,"  so  we  omitted  a  fifth  division  which  would  have 
included  families  of  that  class.  No  attempt  has  been  made  to 
subdivide  these  groups,  for  none  of  the  returns  as  to  employment 
or  earnings  were  verified,  and  it  was  felt  that  the  data  in  hand 
were  not  of  sufficient  detail  and  accuracy  to  warrant  a  more 
elaborate  or  exact  classification.*  A  discussion  of  the  character- 
istics of  the  families  which  we  have  placed  in  these  different  groups 
will  make  the  method  of  classification  more  intelligible.  We  set 
no  standard  of  income  or  earnings  to  make  a  dividing  line  between 

*  Any  attempt  at  a  classification  of  families  on  the  basis  of  economic  condi- 
tions must  inevitably  recall  the  classification  used  in  Booth's  Life  and  Labour  of 
the  People;  and  it  is  needless  to  point  out  that  our  data  obtained  on  the  basis  of  a 
single  visit  by  the  investigator,  even  when  supplemented,  as  was  often  the  case, 
by  the  probation  officer,  were  not  sufficiently  complete  to  permit  the  use  of  the 

70 


THE    POOR  CHILD 

the  groups,  but  we  were  guided  rather  by  such  items  as  the  kind" 
and  amount  of  work  done  by  the  father,  the  standard  of  living  as 
'  indicated  by  the  kind  of  house  and  particularly  by  the  number 
of  rooms  in  which  the  family  lived,  and  by  the  question  of  whether 
or  not  the  mother  was  obliged  to  become  a  supplementary  wage- 
earner. 

In  general,  the  family  in  Group  I,  the  class  of  "very  poor 
families,"  was  not  supported  by  the  father,  and  was  not,  there- 
fore, a  normally  self-sustaining  family.  In  dealing  with  this 
group  the  court  may  be  said  to  have  dealt  with  the  unfortunate 
or  the  degraded.  In  many  cases  the  father  was  dead  or  ill,  and 
the  mother  had  become  a  wage-earner  in  order  to  keep  her  home 
together.  Since  she  was  probably  not  only  so  overburdened  as 
to  be  physically  unfit,  but  industrially  incompetent  as  well,  her 
only  recourse  was  a  resort  to  some  kind  of  make-shift  work,  usually 
going  out  to  wash  or  clean  by  the  day,  or  to  scrub  office  buildings 
at  night.*  In  a  considerable  number  of  cases,  destitution  had 
come  because  the  father  had  deserted  the  family,  or  because  he 
was  a  drunken  loafer  in  the  class  of  "won't  works."  Under  any 
of  these  circumstances  it  is  clear  that  a  family  will  frequently  be 
unable  to  maintain  itself  even  with  the  help  of  the  mother's 
earnings,  and  assistance  must  be  obtained  from  outside  charitable 
sources. 

The  families  in  Group  1 1  have  been  called  poor,  although  they 
were  normally  self-sustaining;  that  is,  the  father  was  able  to  bear 

Booth  classification  which,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  a  very  elaborate  one,  com- 
prising two  subdivisions  for  each  class  as  follows: 

Class  A.  Lowest  Class;  Semi-criminal    These  two  classes  constitut- 
Class  B.  Casual  Earnings  ing  the  very  poor. 

Class  C.   Irregular  Earnings  These  two  classes  constitut- 

Class  D.  Regular  earnings  ing  the  poor. 

Class  E.  Ordinary  Standard  Earnings    These  two  forming  the  corn- 
Class  F.    Highly  Paid  Work  fortable  class. 
Class  G.  Lower  Middle                            Forming  the  well-to-do  class. 
Class  H.  Upper  Middle 

In  contrast  with  this  division  into  eight  groups,  we  were  obliged  to  confine 
ourselves  to  a  simpler  and  less  exact  classification  because  of  the  less  accurate  in- 
formation in  our  possession.  It  may,  however,  be  said  that  in  general  our  Group 
I  would  include  roughly  the  Booth  Classes  A  and  B,  Group  II  would  include 
Classes  C  and  D,  Group  III  Classes  E  and  F,  and  Group  IV  Class  G.  As  we  have 
indicated,  there  were  no  families  in  Class  H. 

*  For  further  discussion  of  the  working  mothers  see  Chapter  V,  pp.  95-97. 

71 


THE    DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE    HOME 


the  burden  of  support  but  there  was  a  hard  struggle  while  the  chil- 
dren were  small,  to  make  both  ends  meet.  The  father  was  usually 
an  unskilled  laborer  whose  earning  capacity  was  low  and  whose 
work  was  irregular.  I  n  most  cases  the  home  was  poor  and  crowded, 
though  often  decent  and  even  cheerful.  The  neighborhood  was 
frequently  poor  and  congested,  offering  temptation  in  the  form  of 
low  theaters  and  saloons,  and  almost  certainly  without  suitable 
places  for  recreation. 

The  families  in  Group  1 1 1  we  have  described  as  fairly  com- 
fortable. The  most  typical  family  was  that  of  the  skilled  artisan, 
regularly  employed  at  good  wages.  The  homes  of  this  group  were 
in  better  neighborhoods  and  were  often  clean  and  attractive. 
Very  few  delinquent  girls — not  one-tenth  of  the  total  number — and 
only  about  one-fifth  of  the  delinquent  boys  came  from  this  group. 

Of  Group  IV  little  need  be  said.  These  families  in  comfort- 
able circumstances  did  not  contribute  2  per  cent  of  the  children 
dealt  with  by  the  court.  It  is,  indeed,  scarcely  necessary  to  point 
out  that  the  children  belonging  in  this  group  are  children  with 
r  opportunities  for  education  and  varied  recreation,  children  to  whom 
much  care  and  attention  are  given.  Their  offenses  are  easily  con- 
cealed from  the  neighbors  and  the  public  authorities,  and  they  are 
disciplined  in  the  home  instead  of  through  the  court. 

The  results  of  this  classification  are  shown  in  the  following 
table,  which  gives  the  number  of  families  in  each  economic  group. 

TABLE    1 6. — CLASSIFICATION    INTO    ECONOMIC   GROUPS   OF    FAMILIES 

OF    584  BOYS  AND    157  GIRLS   FOR  WHOM   FAMILY 

SCHEDULES   WERE    OBTAINED 


Economic  Croup 

BOYS 

GIRLS 

Number 

Per  Cent 

Number 

Per  Cent 

Group  I. 
Group  II. 
Group  III. 
Group  IV. 
No  Home 

\. 
223 
221 
124 
10 

6 

38.2 
37-9 

21.2 

'•7 
I.O 

108 
33 

12 

2 
2 

68.8 

.21.0 
7.6 

«-3 
'•3 

Total 

584 

1  00.0 

•57 

IOO.O 

72 


THE    POOR   CHILD 

This  table  shows  an  almost  equal  number  of  boys  in 
Groups  1  and  II.  Out  of  a  total  of  584  boys,  223,  or  38  per  cent, 
come  from  very  poor  families,  while  221,  a  number  almost  equally 
large,  come  from  families  which  we  have  called  poor.*  A  few 
families  were  not  placed  in  any  group  because  the  child  had  no  real 
home  but  had  lived  with  different  relatives  or  friends. 

A  striking  fact  which  appears  in  the  table  is  that  in  general, 
the  families  of  the  delinquent  girls  are  of  a  lower  grade  than  are 
those  of  the  boys,  but  attention  must  be  called  once  more  to  the 
fact  that  the  girls  whose  family  circumstances  are  referred  to  are 
institutional  girls,  the  girls  who  were  in  the  State  Training  School 
when  this  investigation  was  undertaken.  There  is  reason  to  be- 
lieve, however,  that  they  constitute  a  fairly  typical  group.  The 
girls  who  are  sent  to  institutions  are  undoubtedly  from  families  of 
a  lower  grade  than  those  who  are  paroled,  for  commitment  to  an 
institution  shows  that  the  court  does  not  believe  that  the  family 
can  be  trusted  any  longer  to  safeguard  the  girl. '  When  it  is  remem- 
bered, however,  that  the  majority  of  those  who  come  into  court 
are  immediately  sent  to  institutions,  it  is  clear  that  the  families  of 
institutional  girls  are  more  nearly  typical  of  those  of  the  whole 
group  of  delinquent  girls  than  might  at  first  seem  to  be  the  case. 
It  is  of  interest  that  the  table  shows  that  a  much  larger  percent- 
age of  the  girls  than  of  the  boys  come  from  the  two  lowest 
economic  groups,  and  that  69  per  cent  of  the  girls  as  compared 
with  38  per  cent  of  the  boys  are  from  the  very  lowest  group, 
the  group  in  which  degradation  and  poverty  go  hand  in  hand. 
A  correspondingly  small  percentage  of  girls  come  from  the  higher 
groups  (III  and  IV),  9  per  cent  as  compared  with  23  per  cent  of 
the  boys.  That  is,  as  families  rise  to  a  higher  economic  group 
it  is  clear  that  the  daughters  are  better  protected  than  the  sons. 
x  In  connection  with  the  fact  that  so  large  a  proportion  of  the 
girls  belonged  to  families  in  the  two  lowest  groups,  it  should  also  be 

*  Although  questions  regarding  the  wages  and  occupations  of  different  mem- 
bers of  the  family  appear  on  the  schedule,  no  tables  of  employment  or  earnings  are 
given  in  this  chapter.  The  data  collected  were  obtained  by  investigators  who  paid 
only  a  single  visit  to  the  home,  and  in  no  case  were  these  data  verified  by  inquiries 
made  of  employers,  and  in  only  a  few  cases  by  interviews  with  the  man  himself. 
Moreover,  it  was  a  year  of  "panic"  and  it  was  found  impossible  to  make  any  trust- 
worthy estimate  of  the  normal  regularity  of  the  work. 

73 


THE    DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND   THE    HOME 

recalled  that  in  general  the  offenses  which  bring  girls  into  court 
are  more  serious  than  those  of  the  boys.  In  80  per  cent  of  the 
cases  the  delinquent  girl  is  one  whose  morals  are  endangered,* 
and  the  supposition  is,  that  this  condition  of  peril  to  her  virtue 
would  not  normally  exist  except  where  the  family  is  either  degraded 
or  lives  under  great  economic  pressure 

By  way  of  summary,  then,  it  may  be  said  that  in  Groups  I 
and  II  the  court  deals  with  the  problem  of  poverty,  and  that 
in  round  numbers  nine-tenths  of  the  delinquent  girls  and  three- 
fourths  of  the  delinquent  boys  come  from  the  homes  of  the  poor. 
Sixty-nine  per  cent  of  the  girls  and  38  per  cent  of  the  boys  come 
from  the  lowest  class,  the  "very  poor,"  the  class  in  which  there 
exists  not  merely  destitution,  but  destitution  accompanied  by 
degradation,  or  destitution  caused  by  degradation. 

Since  the  delinquent  children  are  in  so  large  a  proportion 
the  children  of  the  poor,  it  becomes  imperative  to  examine  some- 
what in  detail  the  possible  relation  of  poverty  to  juvenile  delin- 
quency. Perhaps  the  most  striking  single  effect  of  poverty  that 
seems  to  have  a  direct  connection  with  delinquency  is  the  heavy 
burden  of  pecuniary  responsibility  which  the  child  helps  to  bear. 
It  is  the  normal  thing  in  Groups  I  and  1 1  for  children  to  leave  school 
and  go  to  work  at  fourteen.  But  many  of  them  begin  to  work 
much  earlier.  The  little  boys  who  sell  papers  out  of  school  and 
are  brought  in  for  loitering  about  the  news  alleys  at  unseemly 
hours,  or  for  stealing  newspapers  to  sell;  those  who  become  mes- 
sengers and  are  unable  to  resist  the  temptation  to  keep  some  of 
the  money  which  passes  through  their  hands,  are  familiar  figures 
during  the  court  sessions. f  The  list  of  employments  of  416  of 
the  boys  brought  into  court  during  1903-04  shows  233  cases  of 
employment  as  newsboys,  messenger,  errand,  wagon,  elevator, 
cash,  and  office  boys,J — "blind-alley"  occupations  which  so  often 
lead  more  or  less  directly  to  delinquent  paths. 

*  See  p.  37. 

t  Sometimes  it  is  not  the  newsboy,  but  the  customer,  who  is  really  responsible 
for  the  delinquent  act.  It  has  been,  for  example,  quite  common  for  men  to  take 
up  a  paper  from  a  newstand  and  leave  a  transfer  in  payment.  The  boy  is,  therefore, 
driven  in  turn  to  the  business  of  "selling  transfers."  Of  course,  not  all  of  the 
transfer  sellers  are  newsboys,  but  only  too  frequently  they  are. 

J  The  list  of  occupations  in  which  416  delinquent  boys  brought  to  court  had 

74 


THE    POOR  CHILD 

Sometimes  the  early  employment  is  the  result  not  of  poverty 
but  of  that  difficulty,  already  discussed,  which  the  immigrant 
family  finds  in  adjusting  itself  to  its  new  environment.  Illiterate 
themselves,  the  parents  are  unable  to  understand  the  importance  of 
education  and  see  no  reason  why  they  should  not  have  the  profits  of 
their  children's  labor.  More  than  one  case  is  recorded  in  which  a 
probation  officer  interfered  with  some  foreign  parents  who  clung 
stubbornly  to  the  theory  that  a  child  must  leave  school  and  "find  a 
job"  as  soon  as  he  is  confirmed,  without  any  regard  to  his  age  or 
fitness  for  work.* 

And  there  are,  too,  many  indirect  ways  in  which  the  necessity 
for  work  or  the  dread  of  it  while  the  child  is  still  very  young,  may 
make  him  a  delinquent  boy.  Among  the  family  schedules  may  be 
found  many  illustrations  of  such  hardship  endured  by  the  child  that 
open  rebellion  was  an  almost  inevitable  result ;  there  is,  for  example, 
the  record  of  the  little  German  boy,  the  eldest  of  eight  children, 
whose  parents  were  "very  strict  with  him"  and  compelled  him  to 
work  even  when  he  was  ill  and  unable  to  do  so;  the  case  of  a  Polish 
father,  who  is  said  to  have  been  "very  mean  to  the  children  and 
anxious  to  have  them  work  as  early  as  they  could";  the  story  of  an 
Italian  immigrant  family  in  which  the  twelve-year-old  boy  was 
brought  to  court  for  stealing  from  stores  and  wagons,  and  of  whom 
the  record  says  that  the  "  boy  sold  papers  when  he  was  a  little  fellow 

been  employed  is  given  below.     In  136  cases  the  same  boy  had  had  more  than  one 
of  these  occupations. 

Newsboys 48 

Messengers 27 

Errand  or  wagon  boys      .       .       . 108 

Elevator  boys 15 

Cash  or  office  boys 35 

"Teaming" , 100 

Tailorshop 7 

Stock  yards 19 

Miscellaneous  factory  work 193 

Total .        .       .552 

Counted  twice 136 

Total 416 

*  For  an  interesting  discussion  of  this  practice  of  putting  their  children  at 
work,  even  when  the  parents  could  afford  a  longer  school  life,  see  Report  on  Con- 
dition of  Woman  and  Child  Wage-Earners  in  the  United  States,  Vol.  VII,  pp.  57, 
58.  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor.  (Senate  document  645,  6ist  Cong.  2d  sess.) 

75 


THE    DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND   THE   HOME 

and  was  beaten  if  he  did  not  bring  money  home";  the  account  of  a 
Bohemian  boy  who  was  "  miserably  cared  for  at  home  and  who  had 
work  held  over  him  threateningly  all  the  time."  Of  great  interest, 
too,  in  this  connection,  are  the  cases  in  which  the  boy  is  sent  out  to 
look  for  work,  and  finding  the  quest  adventurous,  pretends  to  be 
employed  and  obtains  carfare  from  his  mother  under  the  pretense 
of  going  to  his  "job"  while  he  is  still  roaming  the  street.  Thus 
an  Italian  boy  was  brought  in  by  an  indignant  mother,  who  had 
given  him  carfare  and  lunches  for  five  weeks,  only  to  find  that  no 
pay  envelope  was  forthcoming  to  reimburse  her.  A  boy  of  six- 
teen was  brought  in  by  an  Irish  parent  on  the  charge  of  incorrigi- 
bility.  The  evidence  submitted  was  that  for  two  weeks  the  boy 
had  received  money  for  carfare  and  lunches  because  he  said  he 
was  working,  and  then,  when  pay  day  came,  and  he  should  have 
turned  in  his  wages,  he  ran  away. 

Young  girl  delinquents  are  even  more  helpless  victims  of 
early  employment.  Illustrations  of  this  fact  are  almost  super- 
fluous, they  are  so  well  known.  For  example,  four  of  the  girls 
whose  family  histories  were  obtained  had  "worked  out"  from  the 
time  they  were  twelve  years  old.  Details  of  their  undoing  cannot  be 
given  here,  but  they  came  into  court  at  the  ages  of  fifteen  and  six- 
teen, all  on  immoral  charges  and  with  their  health  ruined.  The  un- 
protected position  in  which  these  little  servant  girls  find  themselves 
is  discussed  in  a  later  portion  of  this  chapter,  but  it  may  be  said  here 
that  the  cases  given  above  are  fairly  representative  in  illustrating 
the  dangers  which  threaten  them. 

Typical  of  a  considerable  number  of  cases  of  another  sort  is 
that  of  a  young  German  girl  who  began  to  work  in  a  factory  when 
she  was  fourteen,  and  who  seems  to  have  been  a  good  girl  until  she 
got  out  of  work.  While  she  was  making  the  rounds  "  down  town  "  in 
search  of  a  new  job,  she  fell  into  the  habit  of  going  into  department 
store  waiting  rooms  for  warmth  and  rest  and  to  read  the  newspaper 
advertisements.  This,  with  a  large  number  of  young  girls,  is  the 
beginning  of  the  end.  When  this  girl  was  sixteen  she  was  arrested 
with  several  companions  who  were  in  the  habit  of  visiting  waiting 
rooms  with  the  object  of  meeting  men  and  going  to  rooming  houses 
for  immoral  purposes. 

76 


THE    POOR   CHILD 

Many  other  cases  are  given  of  young  girls  whose  employ- 
ment seems  to  have  been  the  direct  cause  of  their  wrongdoing. 
There  is  the  record  of  a  young  Roumanian  girl  who  immigrated 
without  her  parents  and  who  was  assaulted  by  a  man  on  her  way 
home  from  work;  of  a  young  German  girl,  a  good  worker,  who  was 
kept  late  every  other  night  in  the  store  where  she  was  employed. 
It  was  easy  to  let  some  one  "take  her  home"  on  these  nights,  but 
when  she  was  tired  and  overworked  it  was  not  easy  to  resist  the 
temptation  that  followed.* 

But  poverty  sometimes  leads  to  delinquency  in  much  more 
subtle  ways.  There  are,  for  example,  the  young  girls  who  grow  im- 
patient with  hard  work.  One  such  girl  had  been  employed  with 
her  mother  in  a  laundry  and  was  considered  a  good  worker,  but  the 
home  with  seven  children  was  crowded,  and  life  must  have  seemed 
very  hard  at  times.  Suddenly  she  ran  away  to  live  with  a  girl 
friend.  She  tried  to  support  herself  by  working  in  an  office,  but 
finally  went  to  a  house  of  prostitution  where  she  was  found  by  an 
officer.  Somewhat  similar,  perhaps,  is  the  case  of  a  young  Jewish 
girl  whose  father  was  dead  and  who  was  helping  to  support  the 
family  of  seven  children  under  quite  hopeless  circumstances.  The 
mother  was  in  delicate  health,  the  children  were  sickly,  and  they 
lived  in  a  poor,  miserable  place  over  a  stable  where  a  horse  was 
kept.  The  girl  worked  very  hard  in  a  factory,  giving  her  mother 
everything  she  earned,  but  finally,  as  if  she  had  thrown  up  her  hands 
in  a  sudden  impulse  of  despair,  she  became  quite  reckless  and  im- 
moral. She  earned  money  first  by  going  to  low  rooming  houses, 
and  then,  at  the  age  of  fifteen,  to  a  house  of  prostitution. 

Work  in  department  stores  or  other  storey  '  down  town" 
seems  to  be  responsible  for  a  very  large  nurmber  of  cases  of  delin- 
quency among  girls.  The  number  of  cases  in  which  the  mother 
says  of  the  daughter  who  has  been  brought  to  court,  "  She  was  a 
good  girl  till  she  went  to  work  down  town  in  a  store,"  is  in  fact 
too  long  to  cite.  The  records  of  the  Geneva  girls  showed  that 
working  in  a  "store"  was  much  more  dangerous  to  the  city  than 
to  the  country  girl,  which  would  seem  to  indicate  that  it  was 

*  A  case  which  is  more  exceptional  and  which  is  not,  therefore,  cited,  is 
that  of  a  girl  who  worked  in  a  restaurant  and  was  led  astray  by  a  Greek  who  married 
her  and  forced  her  to  support  him  by  leading  the  life  of  a  prostitute,  when  she  was 
only  fifteen. 

77 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 


rather  the  perils  associated  with  down  town  than  the  occupa- 
tion itself.  The  following  table  shows  the  occupations  of  the  girls 
for  whom  records  were  obtained  at  the  State  Training  School: 

TABLE    17. OCCUPATION    BEFORE    COMMITMENT  OF    l8la  GIRLS    (jj 

FROM  COOK  COUNTY  AND  104  FROM  OTHER  COUNTIES) 
SENT  TO   THE    STATE   TRAINING    SCHOOL 


Places 
of  Employment 

Girls  from  Cook 
County 
(Chicago) 

Girls  from  Other 
Counties 

Total 

Domestic  service 
Factories    .               ... 
Stores  .                      ... 
Restaurants 
Offices         .               ... 
Laundries   .               .... 
Miscellaneous 

3i 
3i 

25 
4 

5 
4 
4 

84 
8 
3 
19 
I 

2 

I 

H5 
39 
28 

1 

6 

5 

Total       
Counted  twice 

104 
27 

118 
'4 

222 
4' 

Total       

77 

104 

181 

a  The  occupations  of  76  girls  who  had  worked  could  not  be  learned.  The 
53  other  girls  (i  i  of  whom  were  under  fourteen)  who  were  interviewed  had  never 
worked. 

There  are  several  points  of  interest  to  be  noted  in  this  table. 
The  first  is  the  large  number  of  girls  who  have  been  domestic 
servants.  Many  of  the  girls  who  are  sent  out  to  service  are 
pitifully  young  and  ignorant.  Cases  of  twelve-year-old  girls  who 
have  gone  out  to  work  and  then  "  gone  wrong"  have  been  mentioned, 
and  there  are  many  others  who  are  only  fourteen,  fifteen,  or  sixteen 
years  old  when  they  are  sent  out  unprotected  into  strange  homes. 
These  little  girls,  from  the  very  fact  of  their  being  so  young  and  so 
untrained,  find  only  the  most  undesirable  places,  where  they  are 
household  drudges,  exposed  to  temptation,  separated  from  their 
own  families,  and  only  too  often  with  no  protection  substituted  for 
that  which  their  families  might  have  supplied.* 

*  The  records  of  the  country  girls  furnish  many  illustrations  of  the  extreme 
peril  to  which  the  young  girl  is  subjected  when  "bound  out"  or  employed  in  house- 
holds in  which  no  adequate  protection  is  afforded  by  the  mistress  supposedly  in 
loco  parentis.  We  have,  therefore,  some  shocking  records  of  the  little  maid  abused 
by  the  boarder,  the  farm  hand,  or  even  by  a  member  of  the  family  group.  See 
Appendix  V,  p.  314  ff. 

78 


THE    POOR   CHILD 

The  prominence  of  the  restaurant  in  the  places  of  employ- 
ment of  the  "country"  girls  is  another  interesting  fact,  which 
seems  to  support  the  point  made  in  connection  with  department 
store  work  in  the  city.  In  the  country  or  small  town  the  store 
is  a  place  of  real  merchandising  and  is  too  small  to  allow  of 
that  degree  of  division  of  labor  which  permits  the  use  of  the  young 
girl;  the  cheap  restaurant,  on  the  other  hand,  is  a  place  of  which 
most  respectable  members  of  the  community  are  quite  ignorant, 
and  is  characterized  by  all  the  perils  which  in  a  city  are  associated 
with  a  down  town  job.  Frequented  by  irresponsible  patrons, 
lacking  dignity  and  offering  for  the  most  part  only  unskilled  work  of 
a  character  analogous  to  domestic  drudgery,  the  restaurants  of  the 
small  towns  are  responsible  for  the  downfall  of  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  young  girls  every  year. 

Attention  should  be  called  to  the  number  of  Chicago  girls 
who  had  had  more  than  one  kind  of  employment.  Some  had  tried 
two,  three,  and  four  different  kinds  of  work,  no  one  of  which 
required  skill  or  offered  opportunity  for  training;  in  fact  the 
whole  group  seemed  to  be  unskilled.  Some,  however,  were  worse 
than  unskilled  and  were  truly  of  the  casual  group;  casual  as  to 
their  work  and  more  or  less  casual  in  their  attitude  towards  all 
living.  For  a  few,  there  were  allurements  in  the  attraction  of  the 
"big  business"  and  the  profitable  enterprise.  Pansy,  for  example, 
a  fourteen-year-old  motherless  girl  whose  father  introduced  her  to 
the  headquarters  of  organized  vice,  cherished  the  ambition  of  be- 
coming the  keeper  of  an  immoral  house. 

It  is,  of  course,  quite  possible  to  prevent  the  wastage  that 
comes  from  the  "child's  hunting  a  job,"  and  still  more  from  the 
haphazard  choice  of  wor^k.  Attention  may  be  called  here  to  the 
important  work  of  this  character  that  is  being  done  by  the  school 
authorities  in  Germany  and  in  England.  In  London,  juvenile 
advisory  committees,  appointed  by  the  London  County  Council 
and  the  board  of  trade,  work  hand  in  hand  with  the  juvenile  de- 
partments of  *fre~" labour  exchanges"  to  see  that  children  who  leave 
school  go  into  suitable  trades.*  The  schools  co-operate  by  sending 

*  See  the  Report  on  After-Care  and  Juvenile  Employment,  issued  by  the 
London  County  Council  (No.  5443).  The  purpose  of  the  juvenile -advisory  com- 
mittees is  given  as  follows:  "(a)  To  see  that  the  children  on  leaving  school  enter, 
as  far  as  possible,  the  trades  for  which  they  are  best  suited.  This  involves  a  knowl- 

79 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE    HOME 

to  the  committee,  whenever  possible,  the  children  who  are  leaving 
school  to  go  to  work.  After  consultation  with  the  parents,  great 
care  is  taken  to  find  an  opportunity  for  the  child  to  learn  a  trade 
instead  of  allowing  him  to  follow  the  line  of  least  resistance  through 
a  blind-alley  occupation  into  casual  unskilled  employment.  The 
committee  assumes  a  kind  of  industrial  guardianship  over  the  child, 

who  is  thus  protected  not  only  from  exploitation  by  the  employer, 

but  also  from  exploitation  by  the  family  to  a  considerable  extent.  ! 
Pioneer  work  in  this  field  has  also  been  successfully  carried  on  for 
several  years  by  the  Apprenticeship  and  Skilled  Employment  Asso- 
ciation in  London.  At  present  a  well-organized  committee  con- 
nected with  this  association  is  at  work  in  a  large  number  of  districts 
in  that  city.  It  is  not  possible  in  a  brief  note  to  give  any  adequate 
account  of  these  committees,  of  the  careful  and  systematic  record 
of  places  which  is  kept,  of  the  constant  supervision  of  the  commit- 
tee's "wards,"  of  the  admirable  handbooks  they  have  issued,*  and 
of  the  other  intelligent  and  well-organized  work  that  is  done. 

Although  so  many  of  these  children  work  very  hard  while 
they  are  young,  they  work,  not  for  themselves,  but  to  make  a  con- 
tribution to  the  family  support.  In  Group  I  and  Group  II  it  is  a 
characteristic  of  family  discipline  that  children  "turn  in"  their 
wages  to  the  mother.  The  "  good  "  boy  or  girl  is  the  one  who  gives 

edge  of  the  child's  educational  qualifications,  physical  condition,  and  his  own  and 
his  parents'  wishes  as  to  employment,  (b)  To  see  that  children  who  enter  'blind 
alley'  employment  qualify  themselves  when  possible  to  undertake  other  work  by 
attendance  at  evening  continuation  schools  and  classes,  clubs  and  similar  societies, 
(c)  To  provide  for  each  child  who  is  in  need  of  advice  and  guidance,  a  friend  who 
will  endeavor  to  keep  the  child  in  touch  with  healthy  ideals  and  pursuits  and  watch 
over  his  industrial  progress." 

The  final  sentence  of  the  memorandum  should  also  be  quoted:  "As  this 
system  is  perfected  the  parents  of  all  children  should  have  the  opportunity  of 
obtaining  expert  advice  as  to  suitable  openings,  while  the  future  of  every  child 
will  be  a  matter  of  active  concern  to  those  who  have  been  interested  in  education." 
For  further  information  on  this  subject,  which  is  easily  accessible,  see  Keeling, 
Frederic:  Labour  Exchange  in  Relation  to  Boy  and  Girl  Labour.  London,  King, 
1910.  Greenwood,  Arthur:  Juvenile  Labour  Exchanges  and  After-Care.  London, 
King,  1911.  See  also,  Finding  Employment  for  Children  who  Leave  the  Grade 
Schools  to  go  to  Work.  Pamphlet.  Published  by  the  Chicago  School  of  Civics 
and  Philanthropy. 

*  See  Trades  for  London  Boys  and  How  to  Enter  Them,  and  Trades  for 
London  Girls  and  How  to  Enter  Them,  compiled  by  the  Apprenticeship  and  Skilled 
Employment  Association,  Denison  House,  Vauxhall  Bridge  Road,  S.  W.  See 
also,  Bradby,  M.  K. :  The  Work  of  an  Apprenticeship  Committee  (leaflet,  8  pp.), 
and  Suggestions  to  Skilled  Employment  Committees  Newly  Starting  (leaflet), 
as  well  as  the  Annual  Reports  of  the  Association. 

80 


THE    POOR  CHILD 

his  pay  envelope  unopened  to  his  mother.  Spending  money  is 
given  back  to  the  child  as  the  needs  of  the  family  or  the  generosity 
of  the  parent  dictate.  Out  of  265  boys  for  whom  information  was 
obtained,  171  "gave  in"  all  their  wages,  76  gave  in  part  of  what 
they  earned,  and  there  were  only  18  who  kept  their  own  pay.* 

This  question  of  the  control  of  the  mother  over  what  the 
child  earns  is  often  a  source  of  much  ill  feeling  between  them. 
Some  interesting  cases  occasionally  appear  in  court  which  are 
traceable  either  directly  or  indirectly  to  this  cause.  An  Irish 
mother,  for  example,  brought  in  her  boy  of  sixteen  claiming  that  he 
was  incorrigible.  She  supported  the  charge  by  saying  that  he  was 
only  giving  her  "what  he  pleased"  of  his  pay;  that  when  she  re- 
fused him  spending  money  he  took  it  from  her  by  force. 

It  must  not  be  overlooked  that  in  many  instances  it  is  not 
simple  poverty,  but  undue  frugality,  or  even  avarice,  that  is  respon- 
sible for  the  attitude  of  the  parent  to  the  child's  wages.  One 
very  common  form  of  saving  which  frequently  works  a  hardship 
upon  the  children  is  the  purchase  of  a  home,  a  practice  pecu- 
liarly common  to  the  foreign  groups.  Among  the  families  of 
the  delinquent  boys  whose  homes  were  visited,  it  was  found  that 
148!  out  of  584,  one-fourth  of  the  whole  number,  claimed  to 
own  the  houses  in  which  they  lived.  In  many  cases,  of  course, 
the  property  was  heavily  mortgaged,  or  they  were  making  the 
purchase  by  the  instalment  plan  and  all  the  family  savings  went 
to  meet  the  necessary  payments.  This  "land-hunger"  of  the 

*  An  interesting  example  of  the  parent's  accepted  right  of  control  over  the 
child's  earnings  is  found  in  a  story  told  by  a  Hull-House  resident.  A  neighbor  of 
the  House  once  remarked  quite  casually  that  it  was  very  hard  for  a  mother  to  know 
how  to  "do  right"  by  her  children,  especially  about  their  wages.  Her  neighbors, 
she  said,  complained  that  she  was  spoiling  her  children  because  she  always  told  them 
how  she  spent  their  money;  but  she  said  she  thought  they  had  a  right  to  know  so 
long  as  they  were  good  and  "turned  in"  their  wages  every  week.  To  the  mothers 
in  the  foreign  colony  in  which  she  lived,  this  departure  from  established  custom  was 
a  dangerous  precedent.  Children  not  only  had  no  right  to  spend  any  of  their  own 
earnings,  but  must  not  even  be  told  how  they  were  spent. 

t  The  nationality  of  these  148  "owners"  is  as  follows:  American,  13; 
Colored,  i;  Bohemian,  14;  English,  4;  German,  41;  Irish,  32;  Italian,  7;  Polish, 
19;  Russian,  3;  Scandinavian,  4;  Others,  10.  Total,  148.  About  four  out  of 
every  10  "delinquent  families"  among  the  Bohemians,  Germans,  and  Poles, 
own  the  houses  they  live  in.  These  figures  will  not  seem  unduly  large  to  those 
familiar  with  the  customs  of  the  foreign  groups.  For  detailed  discussion,  with 
statistics  relating  to  several  foreign  neighborhoods  in  Chicago,  see  the  American 
Journal  of  Sociology,  January,  July,  and  September,  191 1. 

Bi 


THE    DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND   THE   HOME 

European  peasant,  as  it  is  sometimes  called,  reacts  upon  the 
children  in  many  ways.  Not  only  does  it  mean  that  they  go  to 
work  early,  giving  all  their  small  earnings  over  to  their  parents 
with  no  allowance  for  recreation  or  small  personal  expenditures 
so  dear  to  the  heart  of  the  young  girl  or  boy,  but  often  it  means 
that  the  mother  goes  out  to  work  and  leaves  the  house  and  the 
children  uncared  for,  that  the  home  is  overcrowded,  and  that  the 
children  are  encouraged  to  pick  up  wood  and  coal — a  practice  which 
so  often  leads  to  petty  depredations.  One  German  family,  after  a 
struggle  of  years,  succeeded  in  paying  for  the  home,  but  the  family 
history  shows  how  much  the  mother  had  sacrificed  to  obtain  this 
satisfaction.  She  was  said  to  "encourage  the  children  to  bring 
stolen  things  home,  such  as  coal,  chickens,  food,  etc."  One  of  the 
little  boys  was  brought  into  court  when  he  was  nine  years  old, 
charged  with  stealing  all  these  things,  but  it  was  the  mother,  of 
course,  who  really  needed  to  be  put  on  probation.  In  the  case  of  a 
Polish  family  with  10  children,  one  of  the  boys  became  a  delin- 
quent ward  of  the  court  because  he  had  been  "sleeping  in  barns" 
for  six  months.  Upon  investigation  it  was  found  that  the  family 
had  been  living  in  a  small  rear  apartment  of  three  rooms,  in  a  tene- 
ment which  they  were  trying  to  buy,  and  in  which  they  had  kept 
the  smallest  and  least  desirable  apartment  for  their  own  use  in  order 
to  reduce  the  mortgage  by  renting  the  others.  In  another  case, 
where  the  family  economized  in  a  small  way  by  always  getting 
grain  from  empty  freight  cars  for  their  chickens,  they  had  paid  for 
their  home  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  father  was  only  a  poor  lum- 
ber yard  laborer,  earning  $3.00  a  week  through  a  large  part  of  the 
winter.  The  family  were  extremely  frugal,  never  spent  any  money 
except  for  absolute  necessities,  and  had  no  amusements  or  recre- 
ation of  any  sort. 

The  cases  of  young  girls  who  are  exploited  by  parents  who 
want  to  buy  a  home  or  who  are  avaricious  and  miserly,  are  almost 
too  pitiful  to  record.  A  German  girl  was  taken  out  of  school  and 
put  in  a  tailor  shop  when  she  was  very  small.  Her  father  was 
dead,  her  grandfather  was  miserly,  and  her  mother  cared  too  much 
about  buying  her  house.  She  had  always  made  the  girl  work 
very  hard,  took  all  she  earned,  and  was  cruel  and  exacting.  When 
the  girl  was  fifteen  she  ran  away,  worked  in  the  office  of  a  cheap 

82 


THE    POOR   CHILD 

hotel,  became  immoral,  and  was  sent  to  Geneva.  The  mother 
is  interested  in  her  now  only  because  she  hopes  to  get  the  girl 
back  so  that  she  can  have  her  wages  again. 

A  probation  officer  to  whom  a  young  Jewish  girl  was  paroled 
became  convinced  that  the  parents  were  encouraging  the  girl  to 
be  immoral.  She  worked  in  a  candy  factory,  earning  $6.00  a  week. 
Her  parents  took  all  she  earned  and  constantly  urged  her  to 
"earn  more,  earn  more."  She  then  followed  the  footsteps  of  an 
older  sister  who  had  been  sent  to  Geneva  five  years  earlier. 
A  more  shocking  example,  perhaps,  is  that  of  a  young  girl,  one 
of  10  children,  of  English  parents.  She  had  worked  in  a  box 
factory,  and  when  she  was  fifteen  had  three  fingers  so  badly  injured 
that  she  was  not  able  to  work  for  a  time.  Her  mother  said  she 
could  not  stay  at  home  unless  she  earned  money  to  pay  for 
what  she  ate.  The  girl  was  found  by  an  officer  in  a  house  of 
prostitution,  where,  she  said,  both  her  mother  and  the  keeper 
were  trying  to  make  her  stay. 

As  one  reads  the  family  histories  of  these  young  girls  who 
have  been  brought  to  court,  many  other  cases  come  to  light  of  ex- 
ploitation by  avaricious  parents.  There  is  the  story  of  the  little 
Polish  girl  whose  parents  "  sent  her  out  to  work  every  day  and  were 
very  cruel  to  her";  the  German  girl  with  thrifty  parents  whose 
father  was  "very  hard  on  her"  and  finally  told  her  to  stay  away 
from  home,  so  that  she  could  go  to  see  her  mother  only  when  her 
father  was  away;  the  girl  with  respectable,  prosperous  German 
parents,  who  gave  in  most  of  her  wages,  but  whose  father  would 
allow  her  no  amusements  and  very  little  money  and  had,  she 
said,  not  spoken  a  kind  word  to  her  in  five  years;  the  little  Jew- 
ish girl  who  sold  matches  on  the  street  and  then  sold  herself, 
and  whose  mother  wanted  her  released  from  Geneva  so  that  she 
could  "help  earn";  the  Norwegian  girl  who  worked  out  when 
she  was  twelve  and  gave  all  her  wages  to  her  mother;  the  Ger- 
man girl  who  at  the  age  of  fifteen  could  neither  read  nor  write, 
although  she  was  born  in  America,  and  whose  mother  desired 
her  release  because  her  wages  were  still  "needed  at  home" — 
these  are  all  more  or  less  typical  cases  of  the  way  in  which  eco- 
nomic pressure  may,  if  accompanied  by  ignorance,  or  degrada- 
tion, or  avarice,  exploit  and  victimize  young  girls. 

83 


THE    DELINQUENT   CHILD    AND   THE    HOME 


In  attempting  to  trace  the  relation  between  poverty  and 
child  wrongdoing,  we  find  the  working  mother  a  factor  of  impor- 
tance. It  is  not  easy,  however,  to  make  any  exact  statement 
regarding  the  extent  to  which  the  mothers  of  delinquent  children 
are  gainfully  employed;  for  the  assumption  always  is  that  the 
mother  is  a  housewife,  and  unless  careful  inquiry  is  made  she  will 

TABLE     l8. — OCCUPATIONS    OF    WORKING    MOTHERS    OF     IO3    DELIN- 
QUENT BOYS  AND  65  DELINQUENT  GIRLS  BROUGHT  TO 
COURT   DURING    1903-04 


MOTHERS  OF  DELINQUENT  BOYS 

MOTHERS  OF  DELINQUENT  GIRLS, 
GENEVA  CASES  (COUNTRY)* 

Occupation                               Number 

Occupation                              Number 

Washwomen  . 

45 

Washwomen 

3' 

Scrubwomen  . 

19 

Scrubwomen 

14 

Laundry  work 

7 

Hotel  work 

4 

Keeping  lodgers 

7 

Selling  cigars 

2 

Seamstresses  . 

7 

Farm  work 

2 

Restaurant  work 

2 

Dressmaking 

2 

Cook 

I 

Manicuring  . 

I 

Midwife. 

I 

Nursing  . 

2 

Nurse     . 

I 

Keeping  boarders 

2 

Actress  . 

I 

Canvassing 

2 

Stockyards    . 

I 

Keeping  a  grocery 

I 

Janitress 

3 

Prostitute     . 

I 

Factory  work 

3 

Factory  work 

I 

Selling  papers 

i 

— 

Clerks     . 

2 

Total        .       .  •     .       .       .65 

Postmistress  . 

I 

Tailor  shop    . 

I 

Total  103 

a  These  are  the  mothers  of  Geneva  girls  from  outside  of  Chicago.  The 
total  number  was  153;  one  was  in  the  poor  house,  19  had  abandoned  their  homes 
and  nothing  was  known  of  them,  36  were  dead  and  their  occupations,  if  they  had  had 
any,  were  unknown;  65  were  engaged  in  the  various  occupations  indicated  in  Table 
1 8;  and  the  others  seem  to  have  been  housewives  exclusively.  Similar  information 
regarding  the  mothers  of  Chicago  girls  could  not  be  obtained. 

be  counted  as  having  no  other  occupation.  The  data*  obtained 
from  the  court  records  show  that  only  71 1  out  of  a  total  of  8557 
mothers  of  delinquent  boys  were  employed  in  any  other  capacity 
than  as  housewives,  but  in  the  more  detailed  inquiry  regarding  the 
families  of  the  boys  of  1903-04,  103  working  mothers  were  found  in 

*  These  data  were  tabulated  only  for  eight  years,  1899-1907;  the  8557  is 
the  total  number  of  mothers  who  were  alive  when  these  boys  were  brought  to  court. 

84 


THE    POOR  CHILD 


the  584  families  for  which  schedules  were  obtained.  Even  in  this 
latter  inquiry  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  in  many  cases  the  occu- 
pation of  the  mother  was  not  ascertained  by  the  investigator,  and  if 
allowance  be  made  for  this  possibility  of  incomplete  schedules,  and 
if  the  number  of  cases  in  which  the  mother  was  dead  be  subtracted, 
it  seems  a  safe  and  reasonable  conclusion  that  at  least  one-fourth 
of  the  mothers  of  delinquent  boys  have  been  obliged  to  do  some  kind 
of  gainful  work  in  order  to  supplement  the  family  income. 

It  has  been  said  that  103  working  mothers  of  delinquent  boys 
were  found.  Eighteen  of  these  were  not  working  at  the  time  the  in- 
quiry was  made.  Of  the  85  who  were  at  work,  46  were  widows,  5 
had  been  deserted,  4  were  separated  from  their  husbands,  1 7  were 
the  wives  of  men  who  had  low  wages,  and  the  husbands  of  1 3  others 
were  unemployed.  Table  1 8  is  of  interest  as  showing  how  un- 
skilled most  of  their  occupations  were. 

More  than  half  of  these  "  delinquent  mothers  "  are  washwomen 
or  scrubwomen,  which  means  hard  work  with  low  earnings.  Infor- 
mation with  regard  to  their  earnings  was  secured  for  only  65  of 
the  103  working  mothers  of  delinquent  boys.  Of  these,  20  earned 
less  than  $6.00  a  week,  29  between  $6.00  and  $8.00,  and  12  between 
$8.00  and  $10  a  week.  That  is,  61  of  the  65  earned  less  than 
$10  a  week  and  49  less  than  $8.00.  Half  of  these  women  had  five 
or  more  children.* 

*  It  has  already  been  explained  that  the  earnings  of  the  different  members  of 
the  families  visited  were  not  verified  by  the  investigators.  The  following  table 
presents  the  earnings  of  the  working  mothers  as  the  mothers  reported  them: 


NUMBER  HAVING 

Weekly  Earnings 

Three 
Children 
or  Less 

Four 
Children 

Five 
Children 

Six 

Children 

So^n  or 
More 
Children 

Total 
Working 
Mothers 

Less  than  $6 

4 

3 

7 

3 

3 

20 

$6  and  less  than  $8    . 

8 

6 

5 

2 

8 

29 

$8  and  less  than  $10  . 

5 

3 

i 

3 

12 

$10  or  more 

I 

2 

I 

4 

Total 

18 

M 

13 

6 

'4 

65 

THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 

The  other  significant  fact  shown  by  Table  18  is  that  nearly 
all  the  occupations  involve  working  away  from  home.  Seam- 
stresses, the  women  who  do  janitor  work,  and  of  course,  some  wash- 
women, may  be  employed  at  home,  and  keeping  lodgers  is  exclu- 
sively home  work.  But  those  who  take  lodgers  are  for  the  most 
part  women  who  keep  low  rooming  houses,  and  the  case  of  the 
mother  who  "  always  had  a  loafing  crowd  of  boarders  about  the 
house,  who  had  a  very  bad  influence  on  the  boy,"  shows  that  the 
child  is  not  safeguarded  even  by  the  presence  of  his  mother.  More 
exceptional  is  the  case  of  another  mother  who  ran  the  dining  room  in 
a  large  boarding  house  and  who  "  brought  the  boy  into  court  and 
asked  to  have  him  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School  because  she  was 
too  busy  to  take  care  of  him."  Exposed  to  special  and  great  temp- 
tations are  the  children  of  scrubwomen  who  clean  offices  at  night 
and  leave  their  homes  unguarded.  For  as  the  streets  grow  more 
fascinating  when  the  lights  along  "the  avenue"  make  the  cheap 
theater  and  the  low  resort  more  attractive,  and  night  casts  its 
spell  of  excitement  everywhere,  so  in  a  greater  degree  do  the 
dangers  multiply  for  the  boy  or  girl  who  wanders  there. 

It  is  not,  however,  merely  by  the  employment  of  the  mother 
or  of  the  child  that  poverty  is  related  to  delinquency.  More  directly 
connected  with  the  fact  of  delinquency  among  boys  and  girls  are 
those  circumstances  of  poverty  which  lead  children  to  the  kind 
of  stealing  which  is  described  in  the  chapter  dealing  with  the 
foreign  customs  of  many  of  these  families  of  the  court.*  There  is 
no  question  in  this  chapter  of  children  who  are  taught  to  beg  or  to 
pick  pockets,  whose  parents  teach  them  crime  and  immorality  and 
take  the  profits  for  themselves. f  For  we  are  dealing  here  with  the 
relation  between  simple  poverty  and  delinquency,  and  while  such 
degradation  is  usually  accompanied  by  poverty,  it  does  not  charac- 
terize the  normal  lives  of  the  poor.  It  has  already  been  explained 
that  a  considerable  number  of  children  are  arrested  each  year  for 
stealing  when  neither  they  nor  their  parents  are  bona  fide  thieves 
or  pickpockets.  The  children  who  throw  coal  off  the  cars  and 
pick  fuel  off  the  tracks,  who  sweep  the  "empties"  to  get  grain,  are 
most  of  them  from  normally  poor  families  who  feel  that  the 

*  See  Chapter  III,  The  Child  of  the  Immigrant,  pp.  68-69. 
t  See  Chapter  VI,  The  Child  from  the  Degraded  Home,  p.  105. 

86 


THE    POOR   CHILD 

railroad  tracks  are  in  a  sense  public  property  to  be  resorted  to  by 
those  whose  necessities  are  great.  Quite  simple  and  direct  is  the 
story  of  the  poor  ignorant  Polish  boy  whose  family  immigrated 
when  he  was  thirteen  and  who  has  never  learned  to  read  or  write. 
While  the  stepfather  was  ill  with  pneumonia,  the  family  had  no 
food  nor  fuel,  and  the  children  almost  starved  to  death.  It  is 
not  strange  that  under  these  circumstances  this  oldest  boy  was  sent 
to  the  railroad  tracks  nearby  to  find  something  to  burn.  He  was 
found  and  brought  to  court  for  trying  to  carry  off  some  grain  doors 
which  the  railroad  company  valued  at  50  cents  each.  He  was 
never  in  court  except  for  this  one  offense.  He  and  his  brother  have 
worked  steadily  ever  since,  and  have  supported  the  entire  family 
of  nine  children. 

A  similar  case  was  that  of  a  fourteen-year-old  boy  arrested 
for  breaking  seals  on  a  freight  car.  The  boy's  mother  was  trying 
to  take  care  of  1 1  children  by  washing,  and  the  family  were 
going  without  food  and  coal.  The  boy  had  been  habitually  sent 
out  to  find  what  he  could  about  the  tracks,  and  a  friendly  police- 
man, because  he  knew  the  family  were  in  need,  had  often  said, 
"All. right,  go  ahead."  A  less  friendly  "copper,"  however,  saw 
only  an  offense  demanding  an  arrest,  and  so  the  boy  became 
"delinquent." 

Another  Polish  boy  who  was  brought  in  when  he  was  twelve 
years  old  for  stealing  coal,  had  been  sent  by  his  mother  to  get  it 
from  the  tracks  "  because  everyone  did,"  and  because  not  to  save 
in  this  way  was  evidence  of  lack  of  thrift.  Another  Polish  boy 
caught  "stealing  coal  from  the  railroad  and  taking  it  away  in 
bags"  was  one  of  15  children.  What  wonder  if  the  family  in 
learning  to  be  frugal  had  over-reached  the  mark! 

But  it  is  clear  that  these  children  in  Groups  I  and  II  are, 
because  of  their  poverty,  the  victims  not  only  of  family  but  of 
neighborhood  conditions.*  Attention  has  already  been  called  to 
the  long  list  of  boys  who  commit  offenses  against  the  railroad.  In 
some  cases  which  have  just  been  referred  to,  their  offense  of 
stealing  fuel  is  probably  due  to  their  poverty,  but  wherever 
people  live  close  to  accessible  railroad  tracks,  children,  boys 

*  For  a  further  discussion  of  the  relation  between  neighborhood  conditions 
and  delinquency,  see  Chapter  IX,  p.  150. 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

especially,  are  almost  certain  to  become  in  some  measure  delin- 
quent. To  many  of  these  boys  the  "tracks"  are  their  most 
tempting  playground.  With  few  opportunities  for  recreation 
near,  and  with  no  money  to  purchase  those  which  are  far  away, 
the  railroad  adds  the  longed-for  variety  and  excitement  which 
normal  youth  demands  of  life.  Stealing  rides,  building  fires,  and 
even  more,  that  "loitering  on  the  tracks"  and  along  the  high- 
way into  the  great  unknown  which  is  often  charged  against  delin- 
quent boys,  are  but  the  means  of  satisfying  a  healthy  boyish  desire 
for  play  and  adventure. 

It  should  also  be  noted  as  one  of  the  less  direct  influences 
of  poverty  on  delinquency,  that  children  in  poor  families  are 
frequently  handicapped  physically  and  mentally.  And  this  in- 
heritance of  a  feeble  body  or  mind  makes  it  difficult  for  the  child 
to  get  on  in  school  or  to  work  like  the  normal  child.  The  little  boy, 
and  there  are  so  many  like  him,  of  whom  the  record  says,  "He 
was  not  very  bright,  and  never  could  learn  at  school,"  has  in  a 
poor  neighborhood  every  opportunity  of  passing  through  truancy 
and  idleness  to  delinquency.  The  little  girl,  and  there  are  so 
many  like  her,  who  is  said  to  be  not  very  bright,  is  so  easily 
victimized  when  she  is  still  very  young  and  slowly  learning.  By 
reading  through  the  family  paragraphs  one  finds  no  small  number 
of  children  with  special  weaknesses  or  disorders;  but  added  to  these 
are  many  others,  in  fact  so  many  that  in  most  cases  no  mention 
of  the  fact  is  made,  like  the  little  boy  who  was  brought  into  court 
at  the  age  of  eleven  "ill  nourished,  sick,- and  pale,"  and  who  later, 
when  he  tried  to  work,  seemed  "to  have  no  ambition."  Such  chil- 
dren of  course  have  neither  the  mental  nor  the  physical  strength  to 
resist  temptation  when  it  comes. 

In  conclusion,  it  may  be  said  again  that  such  data  as  we 
have  gathered  show  that  the  delinquent  children  in  our  court 
belong  to  families  in  which  the  struggle  to  make  both  ends  meet 
is  more  or  less  acute.  The  extent  to  which  they  are  also  children 
of  degradation  is  discussed  in  another  chapter.  Care  has  been 
taken  to  differentiate  poverty  from  vice  and  crime.  For  this 
reason  the  child  brought  to  court  for  begging  is  not  considered  here; 
such  a  child  comes  almost  invariably  from  a  home  in  which  a  more 
vitiating  element  than  poverty  is  to  be  found.  Nor  have  any  ex- 

88 


THE    POOR   CHILD 

amples  been  selected  in  this  chapter  from  the  group  of  cases  in 
which  the  child  when  first  brought  to  court  was  adjudged  depen- 
dent. For  although  in  a  few  cases  the  poverty  in  the  home  may  have 
been  the  cause  of  the  dependent  charge,  in  nearly  every  such  case 
there  is  some  accompanying  fact  of  degradation  which  has  been  in 
the  first  instance  responsible  for  the  poverty  and  which  is  the  true 
reason  for  the  appearance  of  the  child  in  court. 

By  way  of  summary,  attention  may  be  called  once  more  to 
the  fact  that  in  a  large  proportion  of  cases  the  child  who  is  brought 
into  court  is  the  eldest  in  a  large  family  of  children  and  that  he 
must  often  carry  a  heavy  share  of  the  responsibility  for  support- 
ing the  family.  While  he  is  still  only  a  little  boy  he  is  obliged  to 
leave  school  and  go  to  work,  usually  at  some  low  grade  occupation 
which  offers  many  temptations  to  go  wrong.  Week  by  week  his 
pay  envelope  is  handed  unopened  to  his  mother,  and  he  takes 
it  as  a  matter  of  course  that  all  his  small  earnings  must  be  used 
for  family  necessities  and  that  he  has  no  right  to  keep  as  "spending 
money"  any  part  of  what  he  earns.  It  has  also  been  pointed  out 
that  these  delinquent  boys  and  girls  are  many  of  them  neglected 
children  of  working  mothers,  and  their  homes  are  for  the  most  part 
in  congested  neighborhoods  which  offer  few  facilities  for  play  and 
many  opportunities  for  wrongdoing. 

A  study  of  the  homes  and  families  of  these  children  shows 
much  more  clearly  than  any  tables  of  statistics  how  easily  pov- 
erty in  itself  brings  these  children  to  the  court.  It  is  not  merely 
by  such  direct  means  as  stealing  fuel  from  the  tracks,  or  sleeping 
under  a  house  to  escape  the  discomforts  of  an  overcrowded  home, 
that  poverty  brings  its  children  into  court.  When  we  see  all  the 
wide  background  of  deprivation  in  their  lives,  the  longing  for  a 
little  money  to  spend,  for  the  delights  of  the  nickel  theater,  for  the 
joy  of  owning  a  pigeon,  or  for  the  glowing  adventure  of  a  ride  on 
the  train,  it  is  not  hard  to  understand  how  the  simple  fact  of  being 
poor  is  many  times  a  sufficient  explanation  of  delinquency. 


89 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  ORPHAN  AND  THE   HOMELESS   CHILD: 
THE    PROBLEM   OF   MISFORTUNE 

IT  HAS  been  shown  that  many  of  the  children  dealt  with  by  the 
court  come  from  homes  separated  by  habits  of  thought  and 
language  from  much  of  our  American  city  life,  and  that  into 
this  life  the  children  are  often  forced  to  enter  in  a  peculiarly  solitary 
fashion.  It  has  also  been  shown  that  many  come  from  homes  of 
poverty.  Neither  of  these  groups,  however,  presents  to  the  court 
a  problem  of  such  difficulty  as  is  presented  by  those  children  who 
come  from  homes  not  merely  strange  or  poor  but  broken;  the 
children  who  are  fatherless,  motherless,  or  wholly  orphaned;  the 
children  who  are  virtually,  if  not  nominally,  homeless.  For  the 
immigrant  child,  the  probation  officer  may  prove  the  necessary 
friend  and  guide;  for  the  child  from  the  home  in  which  poverty  is 
a  factor  in  promoting  delinquency,  the  probation  officer  may  secure 
relief,  find  work,  alter  conditions  of  employment,  or  in  some  other 
way  succeed  in  putting  the  family  on  its  feet;  but  for  the  child  who 
has  lost  one  or  both  parents  or  has  been  deserted  or  abandoned,  the 
problem  is  that  of  providing  a  substitute  for  the  family  life  which 
is  needed,  and  of  performing  the  extremely  difficult  task  of  super- 
vising the  new  group  of  which  the  child  has  been  made  a  member. 

While  this  misfortune  of  being  motherless  or  fatherless  may 
make  it  easy  for  children  in  any  social  stratum  to  "  get  into  trouble," 
the  loss  of  either  father  or  mother  is  much  more  serious  for  the 
children  of  the  poor.  Such  substitutes  for  parental  care  as  can 
be  provided  are  usually  too  expensive  to  be  enjoyed  by  those  of 
limited  means.'  It  is  therefore  closely  related  to  the  fact  of  de- 
linquency that  the  orphan  children  of  the  court  come,  for  the 
most  part,  from  families  in  which  the  misfortune  of  death  is 

90 


THE   ORPHAN    AND  THE    HOMELESS   CHILD 

accompanied  by  extreme  poverty,  and  that'  in  many  cases  the 
misfortune  is  directly  traceable  to  conditions  of  vice  or  crime  or 
degradation  in  the  home.  So  far,  then,  as  the  court's  wards 
are  concerned,  the  problem  of  the  orphan  child  is  usually  more 
than  a  problem  of  simple  misfortune;  it  is  rather  a  problem  of 
children  left  wholly  or  in  part  unprotected  in  tenement  homes  or 
in  neighborhoods  where  many  temptations  are  offered  that  are  not 
met  by  those  in  more  favorable  surroundings. 

The  following  tables,  which  present  such  data  as  could  be 
obtained  from  the  court  records  and  from  the  family  schedules  con- 
cerning the  parental  condition  of  the  children  of  the  court,  show 
how  large  a  proportion  of  them  have  been  deprived  of  the  advan- 
tages of  normal  parental  care. 


TABLE     19. — PARENTAL    CONDITION    OF    DELINQUENT    CHILDREN 

BROUGHT  TO  COURT  BETWEEN  JULY  I,  1899,  AND  JUNE 

30,  1909.     (DATA  FROM  COURT  RECORDS.) 


BOYS 

GIRLS 

TOTAL 

Parental  Condition 

Num- 

Per 

Num- 

Per 

Num- 

Per 

ber 

Cent 

ber 

Cent 

ber 

Cent 

Father  dead  ... 

1557 

13.6 

494 

17.8 

2051 

'4-5 

Mother  dead. 

1013 

8-9 

353 

12.7 

1366 

9.6 

Both  parents  dead 

349 

3-i 

'73 

6-3 

522 

3-7 

Separated  or  divorced 

1  66 

'•5 

109 

3-9 

275 

1.9 

Father  deserted    .       . 

181 

1.6 

99 

3.6 

280 

2.O 

Mother  deserted 

95 

.8 

'9 

•7 

114 

.8 

Both  parents  deserted 

"7 

I.O 

34 

1.2 

'5' 

I.O 

One  or  both  parents  in  prison  . 

15 

.1 

9 

•3 

24 

.2 

One  or  both  parents  insane  or 

in  institutions  a 

3° 

•3 

15 

.5 

45 

•3 

Neither  parent  immigrated  b     . 

1  1 

2 

'3 

.1 

Total  abnormal    .       ... 

3534 

31.0 

1307 

47.1 

4841 

34-1 

Total  apparently  normal  . 

7543 

66.1 

1428 

51.6 

8971 

63.3 

Parental  condition  not  reported 

336 

2.9 

35 

i-3 

37' 

2.6 

Total  number  of  cases 

11,413 

IOO.O 

2770 

IOO.O 

14,183 

IOO.O 

a  In  four  cases  the  fathers  were  in  an  old  soldiers'  home, 
mother  was  in  the  Home  for  the  Friendless. 

b  One  or  both  parents  still  "in  the  old  country." 

91 


In  one  case  the 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 


In  Table  19  it  appears  that  31  per  cent  of  the  delinquent  boys 
and  47  per  cent  of  the  delinquent  girls  before  their  appearance  in 
court  had  lost  one  or  both  parents  by  death,  desertion,  imprison- 
ment, or  similar  misfortune  and  that  they  had  not  had  the  benefit 
of  the  wholesome  discipline  which  normal  family  life  affords. 

TABLE  2O. — PARENTAL  CONDITION  OF  584  DELINQUENT  BOYS  AND 

157  DELINQUENT  GIRLS  BROUGHT  TO  COURT  DURING 

1903-04.     (DATA  FROM  FAMILY  SCHEDULES.) 


BOYS 

GIRLS 

TOTAL 

Parental  Condition 

Num- 

Per 

Num- 

Per 

Num- 

Per 

ber 

Cent 

ber 

Cent 

ber 

Cent 

116 

IQ.Q 

19.1 

14.6 

! 

Mother  dead       

57 

y  y 

9.8 

32 

20.4 

BWV 

89 

I2.O 

Both  dead  

25 

4-3 

7 

4-5 

32 

4-3 

Separated  or  divorced 

12 

2.O 

12 

7-6 

24 

3-2 

Father  deserted         .... 

21 

3-6 

'3 

8.3 

34 

4-6 

Mother  deserted        .... 

2 

•3 

I 

.6 

3 

•4 

Both  deserted  a  (or  one   deserted 

and  one  dead  or  insane) 

10 

••7 

15 

9-6 

25 

3-4 

One  parent  in  prison  b      .       .       . 

2 

•3 

7 

4-5 

9 

1.2 

One  or  both  parents  insane  or  in 

institutions0  

5 

•9 

3 

1.9 

8 

I.I 

Neither  parent  immigrated     . 

3 

•5 

i 

.6 

4 

.6 

Total  abnormal      .... 

253 

43-3 

121 

77.1 

374 

50.5 

Total  apparently  normal     . 

33' 

56.7 

36 

22.9 

367 

49-5 

Total  number  of  cases      .     .     . 

584 

IOO.O 

'57 

IOO.O 

74i 

IOO.O 

aThis  includes  16  cases  in  which  one  parent  had  deserted,  when  the  other 
was  dead  or  insane,  as  follows:  1 1  cases,  father  deserted  and  mother  dead;  4  cases, 
mother  deserted  and  father  dead;  i  case,  father  deserted  and  mother  insane. 

b  In  five  cases  the  remaining  parent  was  dead  or  deserted,  as  follows:  three 
cases,  father  in  prison  and  mother  dead;  one  case,  mother  in  prison  and  father  dead; 
one  case,  mother  in  prison  and  father  deserted. 

c  In  one  case  the  father  was  in  an  old  soldiers'  home. 

The  further  data  gathered  in  the  family  schedules  for  1903-04 
indicate  that  the  figures  in  Table  19  understate  rather  than  over- 
state the  extent  to  which  the  court's  wards  have  been  orphaned. 
Thus  Table  20  shows  that  among  the  children  from  whom  this  more 
detailed  information  was  secured,  20  per  cent  of  the  boys  instead  of 
1 4  per  cent  were  fatherless,  and  i  o  per  cent  instead  of  9  per  cent  were 

92 


THE   ORPHAN    AND  THE    HOMELESS   CHILD 

motherless;  and  among  the  girls  19  per  cent  instead  of  18  per  cent 
were  fatherless,  while  20  per  cent  instead  of  1 3  per  cent  were  mother- 
less. In  addition  to  the  homes  broken  by  death  are  those  in  which 
divorce,  separation,  or  desertion  have  left  the  children  practically 
orphaned.  Here  again  the  more  accurate  data  from  the  family 
schedules  show  a  larger  number  of  children  deprived  of  parental 
care  than  do  the  court  records.  According  to  Table  20  only  57 
instead  of  66  per  cent  of  the  boys,  as  indicated  by  Table  1 9,  and  only 
23  instead  of  52  per  cent  of  the  girls,  belonged  to  apparently  normal 
families.  It  is  also  significant  that  there  were  75  homeless  boys 
in  this  1903-04  group  who  had  no  families  to  be  visited  and  who 
are  therefore  not  included  among  the  fatherless  or  motherless  chil- 
dren for  whom  family  schedules  were  secured. 

Of  the  danger  which  must  be  faced  by  the  child  wholly  or- 
phaned and  left  alone  and  in  poverty  in  a  great  city,  little  need  be 
said,  but  a  few  cases  should  perhaps  be  cited.  There  is  thirteen- 
year-old  colored  James,  for  example,  fatherless  and  motherless, 
who  was  used  by  an  older  man  in  a  bold  attempt  at  burglary,  was 
arrested,  put  on  probation,  but  disappeared  wholly  from  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  court  and  cannot  be  traced;  and  twelve-year-old 
Robert,  who,  after  the  death  of  his  parents,  is  charged  with  cutting 
another  boy  and  committed  to  the  John  Worthy  School  for  eight 
months,  then  put  on  probation,  paroled  to  the  manager  of  the  acro- 
batic troupe  of  a  great  circus  organization,  six  months  later  again 
brought  into  court  charged  with  loitering  about  street  corners  in 
bad  company,  committed  to  an  institution  for  dependent  boys,  and 
after  his  release  wholly  lost  track  of.  Fourteen-year-old  orphan 
Charles  was  first  placed  on  a  county  poor  farm,  then  became  the 
ward  of  a  children's  aid  society,  was  placed  successively  in  four 
different  homes,  and  was  finally  brought  to  court  as  incorrigible 
and  was  committed  to  the  John  Worthy  School. 

'•  It  is  evident  that  the  young  girl  who  is  orphaned  or  aban- 
doned in  the  city  may  easily  become  delinquent.  It  may  be  in- 
teresting, however,  to  note  the  following  fairly  typical  cases,  taken 
from  the  long  list  of  girls  with  no  real  homes  who  come  into  court 
year  after  year.  Such  cases  show  what  a  device  for  gathering  in 
fragments  of  humanity  the  court  may  prove  when  once  adequately 
equipped  with  agents  to  discover  those  in  need  of  protection,  and 

93 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

with  the  means  of  training  and  safeguarding  those  who  have  been 
found. 

Dorothy,  a  seventeen-year-old  German  girl,  fatherless 
and  motherless,  was  the  unmarried  mother  of  an  eighteen- 
months-old  baby,  which  she  had  left  in  a  "  Home."  She  was 
arrested  twice  within  ten  days,  once  in  a  "notorious  saloon," 
once  in  a  "bad  hotel."  She  said  she  had  been  "on  the 
street "  ever  since  her  mother  died,  but  was  quite  willing  to 
go  to  an  institution. 

Amanda,  a  fourteen-year-old  German  girl,  lived  with 
Mrs.  M.,  whose  eldest  daughter  was  immoral  and  whose 
eldest  son  drank  and  took  advantage  of  Amanda.  It  was 
recognized  that  the  child  was  not  vicious  but  wholly  un- 
trained, and  after  being  brought  into  court  for  immorality, 
she  was  committed  for  nine  months  to  the  House  of  the  Good 
Shepherd.  After  her  release  she  was  placed  in  an  unfor- 
tunate home,  but  after  being  put  in  another  home  where  she 
has  the  care  of  two  small  children  she  seems  to  have  im- 
proved enough  to  be  permanently  released  from  probation 
at  the  age  of  seventeen. 

Mary,  a  fifteen-year-old  girl,  fatherless  and  motherless, 
frequented  the  company  of  vicious  persons  and  was  said  to  be 
"a  wilful  wanderer  in  streets  and  alleys."  She  was  com- 
mitted to  Geneva,  where  she  completed  the  eighth  grade. 
After  Hfcr  release  she  completed  a  high-school  course  and  is 
now  teaching. 

Myda,  a  sixteen-year-old  girl  whose  parents  are  dead, 
came  from  a  country  town  to  Chicago  to  give  birth  to  an 
illegitimate  child.  She  refused  to  divulge  the  name  of  the 
father  of  her  child  or  to  care  for  the  child.  She  was  not 
vicious,  bi't  weak  and  irresponsible,  and  had  no  home  and  no 
one  to  care  for  her. 

Carrie,  a  girl  whose  parents  died  when  she  was  about 
six  years  old,  was  committed  at  the  age  of  nine  to  Geneva 
and  was  later  released.  At  the  age  of  thirteen  she  was 
brought  into  court  for  immorality  and  committed  to  the 
Erring  Woman's  Refuge. 

Grace,  a  Norwegian  orphan,  sixteen  years  of  age,  had 
been  dancing  in  Oriental  scenes  in  cheap  theaters  and 
sleeping  in  empty  flats.  She  was  committed  to  Geneva  for 
immorality. 

Pearl,  a  motherless  girl  of  seventeen  whose  father  lives 
in  a  country  town,  lived  in  different  rooming  houses  in  com- 

94 


THE    ORPHAN    AND   THE    HOMELESS   CHILD 

pany  with  one  man  for  a  number  of  weeks,  and  was  for  three 
weeks  in  a  house  of  prostitution. 

Pearl,  a  thirteen-year-old  motherless  girl  whose  father 
lives  in  Michigan,  lived  with  a  prostitute  sister  in  whose 
house  she  was  assaulted  by  a  man  to  whom  her  sister  claims 
to  be  married. 

The  number  of  children  who  are  wholly  orphaned  is  very 
much  smaller  than  the  number  of  those  who  have  lost  only  one 
parent;  but  even  this  slighter  misfortune  is  a  heavy  one,  as  the 
surviving  parent  usually  proves  quite  incapable  of  playing  the  part 
of  both  father  and  mother.  Whether  it  be  the  father  who  attempts 
to  carry  the  burden  of  training  and  care  along  with  the  burden  of 
support,  or  the  mother  who  adds  the  responsibilities  of  wage- 
earning  to  those  of  the  home,  the  result  will  probably  be  disastrous 
to  the  children.  But  of  the  two,  the  loss  of  the  wage-earner  is  ap- 
parently the  more  serious  because  for  him  no  substitute  can  be 
found,  and  if  the  mother  is  compelled  to  support  the  family,  the 
home  is  either  confused  by  becoming  a  work  place  or  neglected 
because  of  her  absence. 

Among  the  1 557  fatherless  boys  who  have  come  into  court  as 
delinquent  are  many  children  of  working  mothers.  There  is,  for 
example,  the  case  of  the  nine-year-old  Irish  boy  whose  father  died 
when  he  was  only  four  years  old.  The  mother  supported  herself 
and  five  children  by  washing  and  managed  to  keep  the  bare  home 
clean  and  sweet.  But  she  could  not  at  the  same  time  take  care  of 
her  three  boys  and  keep  them  off  the  railroad  tracks.  The  result 
is  that  one  is  in  Pontiac,*  another  has  been  in  the  John  Worthy 
School,  and  this  lad  of  nine  is  brought  into  court  a  second  time  for 
offenses  connected  with  the  railroad.  He  is  said  to  be  "fond  of  his 
mother  and  always  good  to  her." 

In  the  case  of  a  Norwegian  boy,  one  of  four  children,  who  had 
a  good  home  in  a  very  poor  neighborhood,  there  was  a  sirpilar  situa- 
tion. The  father  died;  and  while  the  mother  was  away  washing, 
the  boy  got  in  with  a  bad  gang.  To  be  sure,  when  the  mother 
married  again,  the  stepfather  was  watchful  and  even  severe;  but 
it  was  too  late,  and  the  boy  is  now  in  Pontiac. 

There  are  many  cases  of  delinquent  girls  who,  when  they  were 

*  The  state  reformatory. 
95 


THE   DELINQUENT   CHILD   AND   THE    HOME 

too  young,  were  obliged  to  share  with  the  mother  the  burden  of 
family  support.  There  is  the  case  of  a  Russian  Jewish  family 
where  the  father  died  leaving  seven  small  children.  The  mother 
worked  out  by  the  day,  trying  to  support  them;  the  home  was 
miserably  poor,  dirty,  and  disorderly.  The  oldest  daughter  also 
worked  hard,  giving  all  her  wages  to  her  mother,  but  by  the  time 
she  was  seventeen  she  had  been  in  court,  and  in  Geneva,  twice.  In 
another  case,  a  mother  who  was  left  with  six  children  tried  to  take 
care  of  them  by  washing  and  cleaning.  The  oldest  girl,  who  was 
allowed  to  go  to  work  in  a  department  store,  became  "very  im- 
moral" before  she  was  sixteen,  and  was  sent  to  Geneva  by  the  court. 
Many  similar  cases  of  fatherless  girls  whose  mothers  worked,  may 
be  found  not  only  in  the  family  paragraphs  but  in  the  histories 
given  in  the  court  records.  Some  of  these  seem  much  more  un- 
fortunate, but  perhaps  for  that  reason  less  typical,  than  those  which 
have  been  given.  There  is  Lena,  for  example,  a  fourteen-year- 
old  German  girl  whose  father  is  dead  and  whose  mother  is  a 
scrubwoman.  The  girl  slept  in  hallways  and  toilet  rooms,  was 
brought  into  court  on  the  charge  of  immorality,  and  committed  to 
Geneva.  After  being  released  she  was  returned  to  the  court 
charged  with  soliciting  men  on  the  street  at  night,  and  was  again 
committed  to  the  institution.  Another  case  is  Roslyn,  a  colored 
girl,  whose  father  was  dead  and  whose  mother  was  a  domestic  ser- 
vant without  a  home  for  the  girl.  Left  alone  and  unguarded 
she  went  with  bad  company,  was  brought  in  as  immoral,  and  com- 
mitted to  Geneva.  Two  other  colored  girls  are  Laura  and  Ger- 
aldine,  sisters,  fifteen  and  sixteen  years  of  age,  whose  father  is  dead 
and  whose  mother  is  a  laundress.  The  mother,  who  was  away 
during  the  day,  soon  found  the  girls  uncontrollable,  and  asked  that 
they  be  taken  in  charge  by  the  court. 

Almost  inevitably  the  fact  that  the  mother  goes  out  to  work 
I  means  that  the  home  is  cheerless  and  untidy  and  that  the  children 
have  every  opportunity  to  stay  away  from  school  and  live  that  life 
of  the  streets  which  is  at  once  so  alluring  and  so  demoralizing.  A 
long  record  of  cases  like  the  following  might  be  given  to  show 
how  direct  is  the  line  of  descent  from  the  working  mother  to  the 
delinquent  child:  "The  mother  took  in  washing  and  had  a  hard 
struggle  for  years;  .  .  .  was  not  able  to  look  after  the  children 


THE   ORPHAN    AND  THE   HOMELESS   CHILD 

properly";  "the  boy  had  never  had  proper  home  care;  he  was 
kept  out  of  school  to  deliver  washing  for  his  mother";  the  mother 
"  has  always  been  away  from  home  all  day,  and  the  children  have 
been  left  to  look  after  themselves";  the  mother  "went  out  to  work 
and  left  the  children  in  charge  of  a  neighbor,  who  did  not  treat  them 
properly";  "while  the  mother  was  a  widow  working  away  from 
home,  the  boy  got  in  with  a  bad  gang";  "the  mother  supports  the 
family  by  washing;  .  .  .  the  boy  is  said  to  have  very  little  care 
at  home";  after  the  father's  death  "the  mother  had  to  go  to  work, 
and  there  was  no  one  left  to  look  after  the  family";  "the  mother 
supported  the  family  by  washing  and  cleaning;  the  children  were 
left  alone  all  day." 

It  is  clear  then  that,  in  the  family  where  the  father's  death  is 
accompanied  by  poverty,  disaster  to  the  children  may  easily  result.' 
In  families  in  this  class,  the  loss  of  the  father  is  likely  to  be  more 
disastrous  than  the  loss  of  the  mother.  That  is,  of  course,  quite 
unlike  the  situation  in  the  ordinary  well-to-do  family  where  the 
father's  death  does  not  mean  any  material  change  in  the  family 
resources,  and  where  the  children  probably  suffer  more  from  the 
loss  of  the  mother,  who  is  the  more  intimate  parent.  But  in  the 
poor  home,  when  the  father  dies,  the  entire  income  of  the  family 
is  suddenly  cut  off  and  not  only  is  there  the  difficulty  involved  in  a 
radical  readjustment  of  the  standard  of  living,  but  there  is  in  effect 
the  loss  of  both  parents,  for  the  mother  if  she'  must  earn  money  is 
no  longer  able  to  perform  her  real  duties.  That  is,  when  the  father 
dies,  there  is  no  other  way  of  providing  a  new  wage-earner  than  for 
the  mother  to  give  up  her  household  duties  and  make  a  brave  effort 
to  do  work  for  which  she  is  not  trained.  On  the  other  hand,  when 
the  mother  dies  the  father  may  secure  a  housekeeper,  one  of  the 
older  children  may  succeed  in  taking  the  mother's  place,  or  a 
woman  relative  may  be  at  hand  to  tide  over  the  interval  until 
the  probable  remarriage.  If,  however,  these  substitutes  for  the 
mother's  care  are  not  found,  or  if  the  father  deserts  his  motherless 
children,  or  fails  to  provide  the  necessary  supervision,  the  children 
are  likely  to  come  to  grief.  There  is,  for  example,  the  case  of  the 
boy  who,  after  his  mother  died,  became  the  family  housekeeper, 
getting  the  meals  for  his  father  and  brothers.  When  the  boy 
became  a  ward  of  the  court  the  father  said  "a  little  boy  could  not 

97 


THE    DELINQUENT   CHILD    AND   THE    HOME 

possibly  be  good  all  the  time  when  he  had  had  no  one  to  look  after 
him  from  the  time  he  was  eight  years  old."  Or,  there  is  the  case 
of  the  boy  who  was  allowed  to  run  wild  after  his  mother's  death, 
the  family  were  in  very  comfortable  circumstances,  but  the  house- 
keeper did  everything  she  could  to  keep  the  boy  out  of  the  house; 
he  became  a  truant,  then  incorrigible,  then  a  forger,  and  is  said  to 
be  "still  bad."  Or,  there  is  the  home  in  which  after  the  mother's 
death  there  was  a  frequent  change  of  housekeepers,  so  that  the 
boys  were  not  "made  to  mind";  the  older  brothers  were  uncared 
for,  the  little  sister  was  backward,  and  the  youngest  boy  was 
brought  into  court  at  the  age  of  eleven  for  stealing. 

Again  and  again,  too,  one  finds  in  the  court  records  the  case 
of  the  girl  "whose  mother  is  dead  and  whose  father  is  unable  to 
control  her."  Frequently  the  girl  is  only  thirteen  or  fourteen,  but 
her  father  thinks  she  is  "associating  with  immoral  persons"  and 
feels  helpless  about  saving  her.  Sometimes  the  father  is  distinctly 
at  fault,  as  in  the  case  of  Julia,  a  thirteen-year-old  Danish  girl, 
whose  mother  was  dead  and  who  had  the  care  of  a  very  poor  home, 
an  attic  of  three  rooms.  The  father  spent  his  money  for  other 
things  and  gave  the  girl  only  10  cents  a  day  for  food;  she  was 
poorly  clad  and  found  to  be  undernourished.  She  was  tried  in 
another  home,  but  was  later  brought  into  court  on  the  charge  of 
stealing;  she  was  said  to  be  "  a  liar,  rebellious,  and  uncontrollable." 
Or,  there  is  the  similar  case  of  Ethel,  a  sixteen-year-old  girl,  whose 
mother  is  dead  and  whose  father  gave  up  the  home  and  went  to  live 
in  a  boarding  house  where  the  landlady  was  willing  to  have  the  girl 
around,  but  was  unwilling  to  assume  any  responsibility  for  her. 
The  girl  soon  became  wayward,  was  brought  into  court  first  on  the 
charge  of  being  immoral  and  having  visited  a  house  of  prostitution, 
a  second  time  as  incorrigible,  and  a  third  time  as  a  vagrant. 

In  connection  with  the  effect  of  the  mother's  death  and  of 
neglect  by  the  father,  notice  should  be  taken  of  some  of  the  many 
cases  of  girls  who  have  been  abandoned.  They  are  obviously  to 
be  classed,  so  far  as  their  circumstances  are  concerned,  with  the 
homeless  girls  who  have  become  delinquent,  but  in  the  court 
records  their  histories  show  them  to  be  definite  cases  of  abandon- 
ment. Some  specific  notes  of  these  motherless  girls  whose  fathers 
have  completely  abandoned  them  may  be  useful.  The  cases 


THE   ORPHAN    AND   THE    HOMELESS   CHILD 

which  follow  are  those  of  girls  for  whom  no  family  schedule  was 
secured,  but  whose  stories  are  told  in  some  detail  in  the  court 
records. 

Daisy,  a  seventeen-year-old  motherless  girl  whose 
father  abandoned  her,  had  been  living  for  two  years  in  a 
house  of  prostitution. 

Mary,  another  motherless  girl  abandoned  by  her 
father,  was  brought  by  her  brother  into  court  because  he  could 
not  control  her. 

Emma,  a  fifteen-year-old  motherless  girl  whose  father 
has  abandoned  her,  frequents  wine  rooms  and  dance  halls. 

Annie,  seventeen  years  old,  motherless,  whose  father 
has  never  immigrated,  wanted  to  see  the  world  and  ran  away 
with  a  theatrical  troupe.  She  was  arrested  on  the  street  in 
an  intoxicated  condition,  and  was  committed  to  the  House  of 
the  Good  Shepherd. 

Vera,  an  Italian  girl  of  sixteen  whose  mother  died  when 
the  girl  was  three  years  old,  lived  with  her  father  in  Cali- 
fornia until  two  months  ago,  when  he  sent  her  to  Chicago. 
A  charitable  society  found  her  a  home,  from  which  she  es- 
caped; she  then  stayed  at  the  Young  Women's  Christian 
Association  until  the  superintendent  turned  her  over  as  in- 
corrigible. She  was  committed  to  Geneva,  but  is  now  keep- 
ing house  for  her  father  in  a  western  city  and  seems  to  be 
doing  well. 

Minnie,  a  seventeen-year-old  girl  brought  to  court  on 
the  charge  of  larceny,  was  motherless  and  abandoned  by  her 
father,  and  had  got  in  the  habit  of  "  staying  out  late  nights." 

Reference  has  been  made  to  the  probable  remarriage  of  the 
surviving  parent;  and  the  stepmother  or  stepfather  as  a  factor  in 
the  life  of  the  delinquent  child  is  undeniably  important.  It  is  not 
to  be  suggested  that  the  presumption  is  against  the  skill  and  affec- 
tion of  the  step-parent;  but  the  possibilities  of  misunderstanding 
will  be  readily  admitted,  and  many  cases  are  found  in  which  the 
friction  that  has  developed  is  detrimental  to  the  children  of  the 
family.  The  problem,  however,  is  not  one  of  misfortune,  but  is 
rather  one  of  confusion  in  the  home,  and  as  such  will  be  discussed 
more  fully  in  a  later  chapter.* 

The  situation  of  the  orphaned  child  may  seem  to  be  mitigated 
*  See  Chapter  VII,  p.  115  ff. 
99 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 

when  there  is  a  relative  able  and  willing  to  serve  in  the  capacity  of 
a  guardian.  Sometimes,  however,  in  the  absence  of  wise  control, 
the  possession  of  such  relatives  is  by  no  means  an  unmixed  blessing. 
The  relatives  are  often  old  and  irritable  and  out  of  sympathy,  pos- 
sibly resenting  the  care  of  the  child  at  this  unseasonable  period  of 
life  when  the  burden  of  child-rearing  should  be  laid  on  younger 
shoulders.  If  the  boy  or  girl  stays  away  from  home  and  refuses  to 
obey  there  is  almost  inevitably  doubt  and  friction  and  a  final  resort 
to  the  authority  of  the  court. 

In  the  case  of  one  boy  who  had  a  good  home,  but  who  had 
lost  both  parents,  he  and  his  sister  were  claimed  by  a  stepmother, 
two  aunts,  and  a  grandmother.  The  children  lived  with  the 
grandmother  most  of  the  time,  but  soon  grew  very  wild.  The  girl 
has  been  in  the  House  of  the  Good  Shepherd  twice  and  is  there  now; 
the  boy,  at  the  age  of  fourteen,  was  brought  into  court  as  a  vagrant 
and  put  on  probation;  later  he  became  a  messenger  boy,  .then 
ran  away  from  home,  and  is  now  in  a  reform  school  in  a  western 
city  on  a  charge  of  grand  larceny.  Another  boy  lived  with  his 
grandmother,  who  tried  to  care  for  him  after  his  mother's  death. 
She  was  a  kind  but  incapable  woman,  and  although  he  was  dutiful 
and  gave  her  regularly  all  his  meager  wages,  the  home  was  evi- 
dently unpleasant,  and  he  became  a  vagabond,  running  away  and 
sleeping  under  sidewalks.  In  another  case  the  uncle  and  aunt, 
while  possibly  well-intentioned,  were  most  severe  to  a  little  eleven- 
year-old  orphan  boy  who  was  left  in  their  care.  He  met  with 
an  accident  after  which  his  leg  had  to  be  amputated.  Later  he 
was  brought  in  as  incorrigible  and  put  on  probation;  and  after 
three  years  he  was  again  brought  in  as  incorrigible  and  sent  to  the 
John  Worthy  School. 

Other  cases  of  children  who  have  fallen  into  the  hands  of 
relatives  unfit  to  be  guardians  are  found  in  the  histories  of  the  de- 
linquent girls.  Two  motherless  Geneva  girls,  for  example,  be- 
longed to  a  family  of  four  children  left  to  the  care  of  an  old  grand- 
mother. The  father  was  a  drunkard  who  neglected  the  children 
and  criminally  abused  one  of  the  girls,  the  grandmother  drank, 
the  house  was  very  dirty  and  ill-kept,  and  an  aunt  who  lived  with 
them  had  a  very  bad  temper  and  quarreled  continually.  Helen, 
a  seventeen-year-old  orphan,  lived  with  her  grandmother  who, 

100 


THE   ORPHAN    AND   THE    HOMELESS   CHILD 

she  said,  persecuted  her  and  who  was  obviously  unfit  to  have  the 
care  of  a  young  girl.  Helen  was  brought  in  as  incorrigible  and 
committed  to  the  House  of  the  Good  Shepherd.  Annie,  a  Polish 
girl,  fifteen  years  of  age,  whose  father  killed  first  her  mother  and 
then  himself,  lived  with  a  sister  who  neglected  her  or  was  quite 
unable  to  care  for  her,  and  who  finally  brought  her  into  court  in  a 
shocking  physical  condition,  on  the  charge  of  incorrigibility  because 
she  kept  disorderly  company. 

To  be  classed  with  the  wholly  orphaned  are  those  cases  of 
peculiar  misfortune  in  which  although  only  one  parent  is  dead,  the 
surviving  parent  is  quite  unfit  to  care  for  the  children.  In  the 
court  records  a  long  list  of  such  cases  is  to  be  found  in  which  the  child 
is  practically  abandoned  or  homeless,  and  although  delinquent,  so 
obviously  the  victim  of  misfortune  that  the  fact  of  delinquency 
needs  no  other  explanation.  There  is,  for  example,  eighteen-year- 
old  fatherless  Mary,  whose  mother  has  been  sent  to  the  house  of 
correction,  who  herself  is  simple  minded,  and  having  become  preg- 
nant is  brought  in  on  the  charge  of  disorderly  conduct.  Jennie,  a 
fourteen-year-old  fatherless  girl,  whose  mother  is  a  paralytic  at 
Dunning,*  having  escaped  through  a  window  from  the  convent 
where  she  had  been  put,  is  brought  into  court  as  incorrigible.  Anna, 
a  girl  fifteen  years  of  age,  whose  father  is  dead,  had  lived  in  a  house 
of  prostitution  since  she  was  twelve  years  old.  She  was  committed 
to  Geneva  and  showed  great  improvement ;  but  after  her  release 
she  became  the  mother  of  an  illegitimate  child.  Agnes,  a  fatherless 
American  girl  whose  mother  is  an  invalid,  was  brought  into  court 
at  the  age  of  thirteen  as  a  vagrant  because  she  would  not  work  and 
slept  in  vacant  buildings.  She  was  committed  first  to  an  institu- 
tion for  dependent  girls,  later  paroled  to  her  mother,  and  brought 
into  court  again  on  the  charge  of  disorderly  conduct  and  sent  to 
Geneva. 

In  many  of  the  cases  which  have  been  given,  the  misfortune 
has  been  caused  by,  or  is  accompanied  by,  degradation  and  vice. 
There  are  the  cases  of  the  death  of  the  father  or  mother  following 
intemperance  which  had  already  so  demoralized  the  family  that 
there  was  little  hope  of  ever  reclaiming  any  of  the  children.  There 
are,  too,  the  cases  of  suicide  which  have  sometimes  followed  other 

*  The  Cook  County  Almshouse  near  Chicago. 
8  101 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

evils  in  the  home.  In  the  family  of  one  delinquent  girl,  the  father, 
when  crazed  with  drink,  committed  suicide;  the  mother  had  a 
doubtful  reputation  among  the  neighbors  but  married  again;  one 
brother  was  not  very  bright;  one  girl  had  St.  Vitus'  dance  and 
seemed  weak  mentally;  and  while  the  stepfather  has  been  good  to 
the  girl,  there  is  little  hope  of  saving  her.  In  another  case,  the 
mother  had  committed  suicide  and  the  children  had  no  care;  the 
father  was  a  drunkard  with  the  cocaine  habit,  so  vulgar  and  so  in- 
decent in  the  home  that  the  girl's  morals  were  thought  to  be  in 
danger  and  she  was  brought  into  court.  The  family  was  destitute 
and  had  been  a  public  charge  for  years;  one  boy  was  in  the  pa- 
rental school,  one  in  the  John  Worthy  School,  and  one  girl  in 
Geneva. 

In  a  large  number  of  cases  where  the  court  records  state  that 
the  child  is  fatherless,  the  father  is  really  not  dead,  but  has  deserted 
the  family.  In  the  case  of  21  girls  out  of  157  for  whom  family 
schedules  were  obtained  the  father  had  deserted.*  In  many  of 
these  cases  his  presence  had  been  a  constant  source  of  demoraliza- 
tion in  the  home,  and  it  was  not  a  serious  calamity  when  he  finally 
deserted  and  abandoned  all  responsibility.  This  might  even 
seem  to  be  for  the  good  of  the  home,  but  only  too  often  the  family 
was  demoralized  beyond  hope  of  recovery.  Such  cases  are  to  be 
found  in  the  histories  of  both  delinquent  boys  and  delinquent  girls. 
A  long  list  of  cases  might  be  given  in  which  such  facts  as  the  fol- 
lowing appear  from  the  family  histories. 

A  family  of  13  children;  father  a  drunkard  who  de- 
serted them;  mother  scrubs  and  cleans;  "a  very  poor,  dirty, 
and  crowded  home." 

Family"  very  degraded";  father, a  drunkard,  criminally 
abused  two  little  daughters  (who  later  became  delinquent 
wards  of  the  court)  and  then  deserted  the  family  to  avoid 
prosecution.  Mother  married  again,  but  stepfather  also 
drank  and  was  so  abusive  that  wife  and  children  left  him. 

Father,  a  man  of  bad  habits,  deserted;  mother  drank; 
she  said  girl  had  inherited  unfortunate  tendencies  from  father. 

*  See  Table  20,  p.  92.  The  21  cases  of  desertion  include  not  only  the  cases 
under  "  Father  deserted  "  in  Table  20,  but  the  cases  under  "  Both  deserted  "  in  which 
the  father  had  deserted  and  the  mother  was  dead  or  insane.  See  the  first  note  to 
Table  20. 

I O2 


THE   ORPHAN    AND  THE    HOMELESS   CHILD 

A  family  of  fourteen  children,  six  of  whom  died;  father 
was  immoral  and  cruel  to  his  wife,  and  very  unkind  to  his 
children;  he  deserted,  leaving  family  to  charity;  the  girl  left 
home  because  of  ill  treatment  and  became  immoral. 

Father,  professional  gambler,  utterly  irresponsible, 
deserted  his  family;  one  boy  was  always  "wild"  and  one 
girl  went  to  a  house  of  prostitution. 

Father  and  mother,  both  shiftless  begging  people  who 
will  not  work;  father  periodically  deserts  family,  who  were  all 
in  Home  for  the  Friendless  at  one  time  and  who  are  often 
destitute  and  a  public  charge.  Father  is  now  in  old  soldiers' 
home  and  three  of  the  children  are  in  a  soldiers'  orphan 
home. 

A  family  of  six  children,  one  girl  delinquent;  home 
dirty  and  untidy  with  two  beds  in  parlor;  mother  has  a  bad 
reputation,  drinks  habitually  and  always  has  the  house  full 
of  men.  Father  deserted  at  one  time,  and  family  has  been 
helped  by  a  charitable  society  constantly  for  two  years. 

A  family  of  seven  children;  father, an  habitual  drunk- 
ard, supposed  to  be  a  fruit  peddler  but  really  a  common 
tramp;  deserts  periodically  but  always  comes  back;  very 
brutal  to  wife  and  children  when  he  is  at  home,  and  re- 
sponsible for  demoralization  of  two  older  girls;  family  a 
county  charge  and  on  records  of  three  relief  societies. 

A  very  degraded  home;  father  drunken  and  immoral, 
abused  girl's  mother  shamefully  before  her  death;  criminally 
abused  girl  when  she  was  only  seven  and  then  abandoned  her. 
Girl  brought  to  court  at  the  age  of  twelve  on  charge  that  she 
was  "growing  up  in  crime." 

And  more  cruel  often  than  the  death  of  the  body  is  the  passing 
of  the  mental  powers,  leaving  the  physical  frame  tenanted  with 
strange  spirits,  so  that  the  home  is  inevitably  either  confused  by 
the  presence  of  the  demented  member  or  shadowed  by  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  reason  for  his  absence.  There  are  a  number  of 
instances  in  which  it  is  probable  that  both  insanity  or  mental  weak- 
ness and  delinquency  are  effects  of  a  common  cause,  or  joint  evi- 
dence of  degraded  habits  of  living.  In  the  following  cases,  for 
example,  it  appears  that  desertion,  vice,  and  brutality  accom- 
panying insanity  greatly  increase  the  tragic  consequences  to  the 
child. 

103 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

Lillie,  a  German  girl,  seven  years  of  age,  whose  father, 
now  dead,  is  said  to  have  been  as  near  a  brute  as  a  human 
being  could  be,  whose  mother  is  insane,  and  whose  sister  is 
abnormal,  was  brought  in  as  incorrigible  and  immoral. 

Vera,  a  seventeen-year-old  girl,  whose  father's  address 
is  unknown,  and  whose  mother  is  insane,  found  employment 
as  a  barmaid  in  a  concert  hall,  and  afterwards  became  a 
prostitute. 

Rosie,  a  sixteen-year-old  Russian  Jewess,  whose  mother 
is  in  the  hospital  for  the  insane,  and  whose  father  abandoned 
her,  was  brought  into  court  on  the  charge  of  immorality. 

Annie,  a  fifteen-year-old  girl,  whose  father  was  frozen 
to  death  and  whose  mother  is  of  unsound  mind,  has  two 
brothers  who  are  imbeciles.  She  is  herself  feebleminded,  and 
has  been  the  mother  of  three  illegitimate  children — probably 
the  children  of  her  imbecile  brothers. 

It  has  been  difficult  in  many  cases  cited  to  avoid  the  impres- 
sion that  with  misfortune  there  were  found  low  standards  of  con- 
duct and  either  immoral  practices  or  their  consequences  in  physical, 
mental,  or  moral  weakness.  In  many  cases  the  evidences  of  deg- 
radation are  not  implied  but  explicit  and  obvious.  To  a  con- 
sideration of  them  the  following  chapter  will  be  devoted.  In  this 
chapter  an  attempt  has  been  made  to  point  out  the  possible  con- 
sequences of  a  failure  on  the  part  of  the  community  to  make  good 
as  far  as  possible  in  the  case  of  every  child,  the  loss  through  death, 
desertion,  or  insanity  of  that  parental  care  and  nurture  which 
should  be  the  lot  of  all  children. 


104 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  CHILD  FROM  THE  DEGRADED  HOME 
THE  PROBLEM  OF  DEGENERACY 


M 


ORE  unfortunate  even  than  the  orphan  child  is  the  child 
from  the  degraded  home — the  home  where  there  are  bru- 
tality, drunkenness,  immorality,  or  crime,  paralysis  and 
insanity  following  vice,  imbecile  and  weak-minded  children,  and 
the  misery  of  filthy  and  overcrowded  rooms.  Under  such  con- 
ditions the  body  often  suffers  with  the  spirit,  for  the  physical 
inheritance  is  frequently  so  poor  as  to  render  the  power  of  re- 
sistance slight,  and  the  danger  of  infection  from  tuberculosis 
and  from  the  diseases  resulting  from  immorality  is  great.  The 
children  in  homes  of  this  class  present  a  most  serious  problem  to 
the  court.  The  question  is  not  alone  how  to  deal  with  them  when 
they  are  found,  but  how  to  find  them.  There  is  unfortunately  no 
sure  method  of  reaching  these  children  until  it  is  too  late  for  any 
treatment  to  prove  efficacious.  Although  conditions  may  be 
shockingly  bad,  so  long  as  both  parents  are  alive  and  keep  out  of 
the  reach  of  the  law  and  the  children  go  to  school  with  a  fair 
degree  of  regularity,  there  may  be  no  occasion  for  an  outside 
agent  to  enter  the  home.  When  a  visiting  nurse  is  unexpectedly 
called  in  or  an  appeal  is  made  to  a  relief  agency,  when  a  truant 
officer  calls,  or  a  policeman  or  a  probation  officer  has  a  reason 
for  investigating  because  the  children  get  into  trouble  on  the  streets, 
revolting  but  hitherto  unknown  conditions  are  revealed.  The 
evidence  that  many  of  the  court's  delinquent  children  are  victims 
of  such  degraded  surroundings  as  leave  little  hope  of  saving  either 
soul  or  body  may  be  read  in  the  family  paragraphs. 

These  children  come  in  many  instances  from  homes  in  which 
they  have  been  accustomed  from  their  earliest  infancy  to  drunken- 
ness, immorality,  obscene  and  vulgar  language,  filthy  and  degraded 
conditions  of  living.  The  data  in  the  family  and  probation 

105 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 

schedules  show,  for  example,  that  in  the  families  of  107  out  of 
584  of  the  boys  of  1903-04  there  was  habitual  drunkenness  indulged 
in  by  one  or  more  members  of  the  family.  The  number  of  families 
in  which  drunken  habits  prevailed  was  evidently  much  larger  than 
these  data  indicate,  because  only  in  flagrant  cases  or  in  those  in 
which  the  signs  of  drunkenness  were  quite  obvious  could  any  record 
of  the  fact  be  obtained. 

Further  testimony  on  this  point  is  to  be  found  in  the  family 
histories  of  the  delinquent  girls.  Among  the  1 57  girls  in  the  State 
Training  School  from  Chicago,  for  whom  family  schedules  were 
obtained,  31  were  the  daughters  of  drunken  fathers,  10  at  least 
had  drunken  mothers,  27  had  fathers  who  were  of  vicious  habits, 
1 6  had  immoral,  vicious,  or  criminal  mothers,  while  12  belonged 
to  families  in  which  other  members  than  the  parents  were  vicious 
or  criminal.  In  at  least  21*  cases  the  father  had  shirked  all 
responsibility  and  had  deserted  the  family. 

There  were  also  among  these  girls  1 1  who  were  known  to 
be  illegitimate  children  or  children  who  had  been  abandoned,  and 
there  were  10  who  had  been  victims  of  gross  cruelty.  Forty-one 
had  been  in  houses  of  prostitution  or  had  been  promiscuously  im- 
moral, one  having  been  "a  common  street  walker"  at  the  age  of 
eleven.  Four  had  sisters  who  had  become  immoral  and  had  been 
committed  to  such  institutions  as  the  Chicago  Refuge  for  Girls  or 
the  house  of  correction,  while  in  seven  cases  two  sisters  had 
been  sent  to  Geneva;  nine  had  brothers  who  had  been  in  such  in- 
stitutions as  the  parental  school,  the  John  Worthy  School,  the 
Bridewell,  the  state  reformatory  at  Pontiac,  or  the  state  peni- 
tentiary at  Joliet. 

The  worst  cases  of  all  are  those  of  the  delinquent  girls  who 
come  from  depraved  homes  where  the  mother  is  a  delinquent 
woman,  or  from  homes  still  more  tragic  where  the  father  has  him- 
self abused  the  person  of  the  child.  As  a  result  of  the  interviews 
with  the  girls  in  the  State  Training  School  at  Geneva,  it  appeared 
that  in  47  cases  the  girl  alleged  that  she  had  been  so  violated  by 
some  member  of  her  family.  In  19  cases  the  father,  in  5  the  uncle, 
in  8  the  brother  or  older  cousin  had  wronged  the  child  for  whom 
the  community  demanded  their  special  protection.  In  addition 

*  See  footnote,  p.  102. 

106 


CHILD    FROM   THE    DEGRADED   HOME 

to  these  cases  discovered  at  Geneva,  the  court  records  show  that 
in  at  least  78  other  cases  the  girl  who  was  brought  in  as  delinquent 
had  been  wronged  in  this  way — in  43  of  these  cases  by  her__own_ 
^father.  In  families  of  this  degraded  type  it  is  found,  too,  not  only 
that  the  girl  is  victimized  by  her  father  but  that  she  is  often  led 
to  her  undoing  by^her  mother  or  by  the  woman  who  has  under- 
taken to  fill  a  mother's  place.  It  was  found,  for  example,  that  in 
189  cases  where  the  girl  was  charged  with  immorality  the  mother  or 
the  woman  guardian — an  aunt,  a  grandmother,  or  an  older  sister 
with  whom  the  girl  lived — was  implicated  in  the  offense  if  not  re- 
sponsible for  it.* 

There  is  perhaps  no  more  touching  figure  in  the  court  room 
than  the  lost  daughter  of  a  lost  mother;  the  girl  who  was  born  out 
of  degradation  and  reared  into  degradation.  It  constitutes,  there- 
fore, a  pitiable  and  tragic  record  that  in  18  cases  the  delinquent 
girl  in  the  court  was  the  child  of  a  common  prostitute,  in  23  other 
cases  the  sister  or  aunt  or  woman  guardian  with  whom  the  girl  lived 
was  a  prostitute;  in  44  others  the  girl's  mother  though  not  a  pro- 
fessional prostitute  was  known  to  be  immoral;  while  in  74  addi- 
tional cases  the  mother  was  described  as  a  woman  "of  questionable 
morals"  or  "of  doubtful  character."  If  to  this  record  we  add  the 
189  cases  already  referred  to  in  which  the  mother  or  guardian 
connived  at  the  girl's  wrongdoing,  we  are  confronted  by  a  total 
of  348  cases  in  which  the  court  records  show  that  the  person  under 
whose  guidance  the  girl  was  growing  up  was  obviously  unfit  to 
be  entrusted  with  her  care;  that  the  girl  brought  in  as  delinquent 
had  been  in  the  custody  of  a  mother  or  guardian  who  was  known 

*  Attention  should  be  called  to  the  fact  that  degraded  and  drunken  habits  of 
life  are  not  the  peculiar  product  of  large  cities.1  The  personal  interviews  with  the 
girls  at  Geneva  who  came  from  the^smalleFcities  and  rural  communities  lof  the  state, 
together  with  the  statements  in  rne  school  records  regarding  the  circumstances 
responsible  for  their  commitment,  show  a  degradation  in  family  life  which  parallels 
that  found  in  the  homes  of  many  of  the  Chicago  children.  Out  of  153  of  these 
country  girls,  86  were  the  children  of  fathers  with  intemperate  habits,  and  13  had 
intemperate  mothers.  In  31  cases  the  girl's  delinquency  had  been  caused  by  her 
fathe^or  some  other  relative.  Although  no  accurate  data  can  be  presented,  since 
the  homes  oFthese  girls  were  not  visited,  the  results  of  the  investigator's  interview 
cannot  be  read  without  a  terrible  impression  of  degraded  inheritance  and  depraved 
surroundings.  Surveillance  must  be  even  more  difficult  in  the  country  and  in  the 
small  town  than  in  the  city,  where  more  crowded  living  conditions  have  at  least 
the  advantage  of  giving  the  protection  afforded  by  the  presence  of  neighbors  likely 
to  ascertain  and  report  conditions  that  are  seriously  wrong. 

107 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

to  have  low  moral  standards  even  if  she  was  not  actually  a  woman 
of  loose  morals. 

Statistics  give  no  adequate  idea  of  the  extremely  demoraliz- 
ing conditions  found  in  the  so-called  homes  from  which  many  of 
these  girls  come.  One  delinquent  girl,  for  example,  was  herself 
an  illegitimate  child  born  in  the  House  of  the  Good  Shepherd, 
taken  by  her  grandmother  to  live  in  a  demoralized  home,  and 
assaulted  there  by  her  father  when  only  five  years  old.  At  ten 
she  was  brought  to  court  as  incorrigible;  at  eleven,  found  by  an 
officer  in  a  neglected  condition  sleeping  on  an  ash  box.  Two 
delinquent  girls  who  became  common  prostitutes  were  the  daugh- 
ters of  a  mother  who  was  described  in  the  court  records  as  "a 
common  street  walker"  and  who  died  in  the  county  hospital;  the 
father,  the  "  black  sheep"  of  a  decent  family,  would  not  work,  never 
supported  his  children,  and  was  generally  worthless  and  irresponsible. 

In  these  degraded  homes  it  frequently  happens,  as  in  the 
case  just  cited,  that  several  children  from  the  same  family  go 
wrong.  In  one  family  of  seven,  the  six  living  children  were  all 
bad.  Three  sisters  were  at  one  time  all  wards  of  the  court:  one 
had  been  twice  committed  to  the  Erring  Woman's  Refuge;  one 
is  still  at  Geneva;  the  other  has  improved  and  is  now  released  on 
probation.  Two  of  the  boys  were  implicated  in  a  robbery,  and  one 
of  them  was  killed  in  the  basement  of  a  house  which  they  were 
trying  to  enter;  the  third  has  "  gone  off  and  joined  the  navy."  In 
another  "delinquent  family"  of  seven  children,  the  mother  died 
from  the  effects  of  drink,  the  father  drinks  heavily  and  has  so  bad 
a  temper  that  the  stepmother  wants  to  divorce  him.  The  step- 
mother's children  are  all  right,  but  no  one  of  the  five  children  of  the 
first  wife  has  turned  out  well.  The  eldest  girl,  who  has  the  cocaine 
habit  and  lives  away  from  home,  is  believed  to  be  leading  an  im- 
moral life;  the  oldest  boy  is  an  ex-convict,  the  youngest  boy  has 
been  in  the  John  Worthy  School,  and  the  two  youngest  girls  were 
brought  to  court  as  immoral  and  sent  to  Geneva  when  one  was 
eleven  and  the  other  thirteen. 

Illustrations  such  as  these  could  be  multiplied  indefinitely. 
There  is  the  German  family,  for  instance,  in  which  three  brothers 
were  living  with  a  sister  who  had  been  wayward  and  immoral, 
and  whose  worthless,  idle  husband  expected  the  boys  to  steal 

1 08 


CHILD    FROM   THE    DEGRADED    HOME 

grain  and  coal  from  the  track.  One  boy  was  an  epileptic,  one  had 
tuberculosis,  and  the  third  was  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School 
as  delinquent.  In  another  case,  a  boy — first  a  dependent,  then 
a  delinquent — came  from  a  drunken  home  where  the  father 
and  mother  had  each  sworn  out  a  warrant  against  the  other  and 
where  his  two  older  sisters  lived  with  their  illegitimate  children. 
In  the  similar  case  of  a  family  in  which  two  delinquent  sisters 
were  brought  into  court,  their  mother  had  probably  died  from  the 
effects  of  intemperance,  and  their  father  was  an  habitual  drunkard 
whom  their  stepmother  was  trying  to  divorce.  In  an  Italian 
family  of  14  children,  in  which  the  mother  had  married  at 
fifteen,  seven  of  the  children  had  died  and  four  had  become  truants 
and  "incorrigible."  In  a  Polish  family  of  eight  children  in  which 
one  boy  was  sent  to  a  dependent  institution  and  one  to  the  John 
Worthy  School,  the  mother,  who  had  married  at  sixteen,  was  de- 
scribed as  a  miserable,  incompetent,  degraded  woman  without 
moral  standards,  at  one  time  living  with  five  children  in  an  old 
shed  in  which  an  uncle  kept  vegetables,  and  sending  the  children 
out  to  beg  and  to  pick  up  refuse  from  garbage  cans. 

Attention  should  likewise  be  called  to  the  wretched  physical 
conditions  surrounding  these  degraded  groups.  The  alley  house, 
frequently  reached  through  a  dark  passageway,  the  outlawed 
house,  the  overcrowded  apartment,  filthy  rooms  in  which  animals 
are  kept  and  rags  accumulate — these  furnish  the  setting  against 
which  the  travesty  of  family  life  takes  its  course.  For  example, 
one  delinquent  boy  whose  father  was  a  junk-dealer,  brutal  and 
drunken,  lived  in  a  rear  tenement,  decayed  and  unfit  for  human 
habitation,  which  could  be  reached  only  through  a  dark  passage 
filled  with  water  and  rubbish.  Another  "delinquent  family" 
lived  in  a  condemned  house  in  which  three  children  had  diphtheria. 
A  girl  from  a  disreputable  neighborhood  lived  in  a  "  home  of  four 
rooms,  filthy  and  vermin  infested;  the  family  of  nine  had  two  beds." 
The  following  brief  statements  taken  from  a  few  of  the  family 
schedules  are  typical  of  the  conditions  which  exist  in  a  number  of 
these  homes. 

A  low-grade  home,  dirty,  with  a  pig  kept  in  the  house; 
mother  drinks  constantly;  one  boy  is  in  the  John  Worthy 
School  and  a  sister  is  in  Geneva. 

109 


THE    DELINQUENT   CHILD    AND   THE    HOME 

Very  untidy  home  with  rags  and  clothing  all  about; 
family  has  always  lived  in  crowded  neighborhood  where  there 
are  many  cheap  amusement  places. 

Home  conditions  are  very  unsatisfactory;  house  is  in- 
fested with  vermin;  foster  father  insane. 

Russian  Jewish  family  of  seven  children  lives  over  a 
stable  where  a  horse  is  kept  and  where  the  odors  and  filth 
are  disgraceful;  father  died  of  tuberculosis,  mother  is  in 
delicate  health,  one  child  has  tubercular  tongue,  and  another 
is  suffering  from  goitre  and  is  mentally  deficient. 

Girl's  father  is  in  penitentiary;  mother,  who  has  a  very 
bad  reputation,  keeps  a  low-grade  rooming  house  in  a  ques- 
tionable neighborhood;  mother  is  very  cruel  to  children  and 
brought  one  little  girl  to  court  at  age  of  nine  as  incorrigible 
and  immoral. 

Family  of  six  children  often  a  public  charge;  home 
never  comfortable — at  one  time  family  lived  in  a  house  so 
dilapidated  that  they  paid  no  rent  for  it;  mother  died  of 
tuberculosis;  father  is  in  old  soldiers'  home  and  some  of  the 
children  are  in  a  soldiers'  orphan  asylum. 

Mother  insane  at  Dunning;  father,  an  incompetent 
worker,  and  often  drunk,  lived  with  three  children  in  rear 
cellar  apartment,  all  sleeping  in  one  bed  and  a  drunken  man 
lodger  in  the  same  room  on  a  couch;  one  girl  later  committed 
suicide,  one  became  immoral  and  was  sent  to  Geneva,  and 
the  brother  is  in  a  dependent  institution. 

Girl,  one  of  five  children;  family  lived  in  dirt  and 
squalor,  in  a  rear  basement  with  pigs,  goats,  ducks,  etc. ; 
home  conditions  very  degraded;  father  is  a  rag  picker  and  a 
confirmed  drunkard,  who  always  ate  his  meals  by  himself 
out  in  a  shed. 

Nothing  is  known  of  this  girl's  father;  her  mother  was 
a  fortune  teller,  a  very  immoral  woman  who  had  disreputable 
men  in  the  house  day  and  night  and  was  always  intoxicated; 
lived  in  a  three-room  house;  one  bed  for  several  people; 
house  was  always  filthy. 

Of  interest  and  importance  in  connection  with  the  fact  of 
degradation  in  the  home  is  the  possible  relation  between  delin-' 
quency  and  dependency.  In  an  earlier  chapter*  it  was  shown  that 
in  the  cases  of  90  girls  and  90  boys  the  offenses  with  which  they 
were  charged  were  merely  an  evidence  of  dependency.  That  is, 
*  See  Chapter  II,  pp.  28  and  39. 

no 


CHILD    FROM   THE    DEGRADED    HOME 


although  the  court  found  it  necessary  to  send  them  to  delinquent 
institutions,  the  charge  was  "lack  of  care"  or  "immorality  of 
mother"  or  "drunkenness  of  parents,"  or  some  similar  charge 
which  rather  indicated  shortcomings  of  the  home  and  the  parents 
than  any  wrongdoing  on  the  part  of  the  children.  In  a  considerable 
number  of  cases,  however,  the  child  who  is  brought  to  court  on  a 
straight  delinquent  charge  may  have  been  in  court  before  as  a 
dependent.  Table  21  shows  that  201  boys  and -169  girls  who 
were  first  dependent  wards  of  the  court  later  became  delinquent.* 

TABLE    21. — NUMBER    OF    CHILDREN     BROUGHT    TO     COURT     AS 
DEPENDENT   AND    LATER  RETURNED   AS  DELINQUENT 


Age 

NUMBER 

PER  CENT 

Boys 

Girls 

Boys  . 

Girls 

Under  10  years 
10  years  and  under  14 
Over  14    . 

40 
130 
3i 

24 

82 
56 

19.9 
64.7 
15.4 

14.2 
52.7 
33-1 

Total 

20  1 

169 

IOO.O 

IOO.O 

An  example  of  cases  of  this  sort  is  found  in  the  stor£  of  two 
delinquent  boys  who  belonged  to  a  family  of  seven  children.  The 
mother  at  one  time  was  paralyzed  as  a  result  of  excessive  drink- 
ing, and  the  father,  a  laborer  in  the  stockyards,  not  only  drank  to 
excess  but  was  so  brutal  that  the  family  were  all  afraid  of  him. 
The  eldest  child  was  an  imbecile  and  paralytic,  from  birth.  When 
all  the  other  six  children  were  still  under  fourteen,  they  were 
brought  to  court  as  dependent  because  of  the  "drunkenness  of 
both  parents  and  the  demoralized  condition  of  the  home."  They 
were  released  under  probation  but  were  brought  in  again  six 
months  later  and  paroled  to  an  aunt.  Four  months  later  two  of 
the  boys  were  caught  selling  transfers,  were  brought  into  court 

*  It  should  be  pointed  out  that  these  totals  represent  an  understatement  and 
that  all  statistics  for  this  group  are  necessarily  incomplete.  In  many  cases  the 
delinquent  child  cannot  be  identified,  owing  to  changes  in  residence,  name,  etc.,  as 
the  same  child  who  was  once  in  court  on  a  dependent  charge.  The  table  covers 
only  the  first  eight  years  of  the  period  studied,  since  few  children  brought  in  during 
the  last  two  years  have  yet  had  time  to  be  returned. 

I  I  I 


THE    DELINQUENT   CHILD    AND   THE    HOME 

again  as  delinquents,  and  put  under  the  care  of  a  regular  probation 
officer.  This  officer  from  the  beginning  looked  upon  the  boys 
as  dependent  rather  than  delinquent  and  worked  to  remove  the 
demoralizing  influences  in  the  home.  She  watched  the  father 
and  compelled  the  saloons  to  stop  selling  liquor  to  the  mother. 
The  father  has  become  a  fairly  steady  worker,  and  the  two  boys 
are  both  working  and  are  the  "main  support"  of  the  mother  and 
younger  children. 

Many  illustrations  might  also  be  selected  from  the  records 
of  the  dependent-delinquent  girls  to  show  how  often  delinquency 
is  closely  related  to  dependency  and  how  frequently  the  delinquent 
child  is  a  child  from  a  degraded  home.  It  should  also  be  noted 
that  the  great  majority  of  these  children  were  under  fourteen  years 
of  age  when  they  were  brought  to  court  for  the  first  time,  and  that 
the  lack  of  care  and  protection  in  the  home  during  these  early  years 
was  undoubtedly  in  many  cases  directly  responsible  for  the  child's 
later  delinquency.  If  to  these  totals  in  Table  21  we  add  the 
90  boys  and  90  girls  who  were  brought  in  as  delinquent  on  what 
have  been  called  dependent  charges,  we  have  291  boys  and  259 
girls  whose  delinquency  is  in  some  measure  connected  with  the 
fact  of  dependency.  The  few  illustrative  cases  which  follow  may 
help  to  make  this  clear.* 

Nora,  a  motherless  girl  of  fourteen,  whose  father  is  a 
drunkard  and  abuses  his  children,  sending  them  to  the 
saloon  for  liquor  as  late  as  twelve  and  one  o'clock  at  night, 
besides  using  vile  language  to  them,  was  brought  into  court 
as  dependent,  paroled  to  an  officer,  and  later  returned  as 
incorrigible. 

Grace,  a  thirteen-year-old  child  whose  father  is  dead, 
whose  mother  is  immoral,  and  whose  stepfather  has  the 
cocaine  habit,  was  brought  into  court  first  as  a  dependent, 
returned  later  as  immoral,  and  committed  to  Geneva. 

Lulu,  a  thirteen-year-old  girl  whose  father  is  insane 
and  whose  mother  uses  cocaine  and  is  "an  immoral  woman 
of  the  streets,"  was  brought  in  as  dependent,  returned  later  as 
delinquent. 

*  The  family  paragraphs  in  Appendices  IV  and  V  furnish  more  detailed 
illustrations.  The  cases  which  are  given  here  in  the  text  are  selected  from  a  large 
number  of  additional  cases  in  which  the  home  was  not  visited  by  an  investigator, 
but  where  the  court  record  made  the  fact  of  degradation  quite  obvious. 

112 


CHILD    FROM   THE    DEGRADED   HOME 

Margaret,  the  ten-year-old  daughter  of  a  drunken 
father,  was  one  of  a  family  of  eight  children,  supported  by  the 
mother's  work  as  a  laundress.  An  older  sister  was  com- 
mitted to  Geneva  for  immorality  and  Margaret  was  brought 
in  first  as  a  dependent  and  later  as  an  incorrigible. 

Cora,  a  little  Galician,  was  the  child  of  drunken 
parents,  the  father  an  unskilled  laborer,  and  the  mother  a 
rag  picker;  the  child  was  kept  out  of  school  to  mind  her 
little  four-year-old  brother  and  do  the  housework  while 
both  her  parents  and  her  nineteen-year-old  brother  were 
away  ostensibly  at  work.  The  home  was  frequented  by 
drunken  men  and  women.  Cora  was  often  on  the  streets 
at  eleven  o'clock  at  night,  and  was  found  sleeping  under  the 
sidewalk.  She  was  first  brought  into  court  as  a  dependent 
and  paroled  to  a  married  sister  who  was  not  able  to  keep  her, 
and  who  returned  her  to  court  as  delinquent. 

The  fact  that  among  the  2770  delinquent  girls  who  were  in 
court  during  its  first  decade  259  were  called  dependent,  either 
expressly  or  by  implication,  when  they  were  first  brought  in,  is 
of  very  great  significance.  Such  cases  as  have  been  quoted  make 
clear  the  necessity  for  committing  many  dependent  girls  to  insti- 
tutions designed  for  delinquent  girls.  They  also  make  clear  the 
reason  why  a  larger  proportion  of  dependents  are  found  among 
the  delinquent  girls  than  among  the  delinquent  boys;  for  such  low 
conditions  almost  inevitably  promote  immorality,  the  consequences 
of  which  make  the  commitment  of  the  girl  essential  as  a  means  of 
protection. 

In  conclusion,  it  may  be  pointed  out  that  from  the  point  of 
view  of  treatment  the  conditions  from  which  these  children  come 
are  quite  different  from  the  conditions  surrounding  the  groups 
which  have  been  discussed  before.  It  has  been  shown  that  there 
are  many  instances  where  the  lack  of  familiarity  with  city  condi- 
\  .  tions  on  the  part  of  the  child  or  the  parents  may  be  regarded  as  a 
f  cause  of  delinquency,  and  that  there  are  other  instances  in  which 
the  fact  of  misfortune  explains  with  reasonable  certainty,  not  only 
why  the  child  is  not  good,  but  why  she  or  he  does  the  specific  wrong 
thing  resulting  in  the  appearance  in  court.  Very  often,  however, 
the  connection  is  much  more  obvious,  and,  while  the  facts  given 
as  to  the  home  cannot  be  regarded  as  immediately  responsible  for 
any  act,  they  may  be  looked  upon  distinctly  as  obstacles  to  the 

113 


THE    DELINQUENT   CHILD   AND   THE    HOME 

child's  well-being,  making  delinquency  almost  inevitable.  In 
families  of  this  degraded  type,  not  one  child  but  an  entire  family 
of  children  may  go  to  ruin,  and  the  connection  between  such  de- 
graded surroundings  as  have  been  described  and  the  wrongdoing 
of  the  boy  or  girl  can  be  seen  to  be  much  more  obvious  and  imme- 
diate than  in  the  case  of  the  unfortunate  child  whose  home,  while 
uncongenial,  unpleasant,  or  so  very  poor  or  crowded  as  to  be  even 
unfavorable,  is  still  fairly  wholesome. 

With  reference  to  the  treatment  of  such  children,  it  should 
be  said  that  such  cases  present  the  greatest  difficulty  which  the 
court  has  to  meet  and  perhaps  at  the  same  time  its  greatest  oppor- 
tunity. Many  times  the  evil  conditions  are  not  disclosed  until  all 
hope  of  regeneration  is  past.  The  time  for  probation  is  long  gone  by 
and  it  is  even  too  late  for  the  industrial  or  reform  school  to  be  effec- 
tive. If,  however,  the  conditions  which  need  reform  are  discovered 
while  there  is  yet  possibility  of  treatment,  the  opportunity  of 
the  court  is  unparalleled.  Its  action  should  be  as  swift  and  sure 
as  it  is  intelligent  and  far-seeing,  since  there  is  no  time  to  lose  whpn 
the  disintegrating  and  destroying  forces  of  degradation  are  'at 
work,  and  the  child  must  often  be  promptly  removed  and  given 
a  new  chance  under  more  favorable  conditions.*  Such  a  policy 
doubtless  requires  great  courage,  analogous  to  that  exhibited  by 
the  surgeon  who  performs  a  major  operation.  It  also  requires  the 
acceptance  and  application  of  the  principle  that  by  neglect  of 
parental  duties,  parental  right  may  be  forfeited.  But  the  removal 
of  the  child  may  sometimes  be  only  temporary,  with  the  under- 
standing that  as  soon  as  the  conditions  in  the  home  have  been 
made  decent,  and  the  parents  have  shown  themselves  able  to  live 
decently,  the  child  is  to  be  returned  to  them,  and  the  probation 
officer  may  be  not  only  the  discoverer  of  conditions  which  need 
reform,  but  the  agent  under  whose  guidance  the  family  may  be 
reconstituted.  In  many  cases  undoubtedly  the  whole  family 
group  can  in  this  way  be  saved  through  the  child;  and,  by  enforc- 
ing the  maintenance  of  a  new  standard  of  decency  as  the  only 
condition  on  which  the  parents  may  retain  or  recover  the  boy  or 
girl,  a  home  may  be  made  possible  for  the  whole  family  group. 

*  Fora  valuable  discussion  of  the  attitude  of  the  court  towards  the  "rights" 
of  degraded  parents,  see  Judge  Pinckney's  Testimony,  Appendix  1 1,  pp.  238  and  245. 

114 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  CHILD   FROM    THE  CROWDED   HOME: 
THE   PROBLEM   OF  CONFUSION 

THE  causes  of  neglect  in  the  family  thus  far  discussed  have 
been  the  obvious  ones  of  poverty,  sickness,  death,  incapacity, 
family  discord,  and  degradation.  Other  more  subtle  factors 
may  influence  the  situation  to  the  child's  undoing.  If  the  family 
is  large,  if  the  home  is  crowded,  if  the  mother  is  distracted  by  the 
presence  of  many  children  and  can  give  little  attention  to  any  one 
of  them;  if  the  burden  of  custody  and  discipline  during  her  absence 
falls  upon  the  eldest  or  upon  the  eldest  at  home;  if  there  are 
relatives  or  lodgers  lending  -complexity  to  an  already  confused 
situation;  if  there  is  an  unsympathetic  step-parent  and  a  mixed 
family  of  children,  there  is  little  hope  that  the  nervous  system  of 
the  child,  started  unfavorably  on  its  career,  will  have  its  proper 
chance  to  mature  into  self-control,  or  the  .character  to  develop  into 
dignified  manhood  or  womanhood. 

The  question  of  the  size  of  the  family  is  an  important  one 
which  often  has  much  to  do  with  the  care  and  attention  bestowed 
upon  the  individual  child.  In  considering  this  question,  however, 
it  is  necessary  to  know  whether  all  the  children  are  of  common 
parentage;  that  is,  whether  there  has  been  remarriage  on  the  part 
of  either  father  or  mother.  For  it  is  clear  that  a  larger  number  of\ 
children  of  the  same  parents  will  often  give  rise  to  a  less  confused 
situation  than  a  smaller  number  not  related  to  each  other  or  related 
only  by  a  single  parent.  It  is  interesting,  therefore,  that  in  45 
out  of  the  584  families  of  delinquent  boys,  for  whom  information 
was  secured,  the  family  group  included  children  of  different  parents. 
Among  the  girls,  the  mixed  family  was  found  in  20  out  of  1 57  cases. 

The  following  table  shows  the  actual  number  of  children  in 
the  families  of  the  boys  and  girls  for  whom  schedules  were  obtained. 


THE    DELINQUENT   CHILD    AND   THE    HOME 


TABLE  22. — NUMBER  OF  CHILDREN  IN   THE  FAMILIES  OF  584  DELIN- 
QUENT   BOYS    AND    157    DELINQUENT   GIRLS 

Number  of 

Children 

in  Family 

I 

2 

3 

4 

I 

8 

9 
10 


NUMBER  OF 

FAMILIES 

OF 

Boys      Girls 

3° 

25 

37 

25 

82 

19 

88 

17 

70 

17 

84 

15 

71 

IS 

43 

4 

28 

6 

'7 

6 

#««&«•  o/                  NUMBER  OF 
Children                     FAMILIES  OF 

in  Family                  Boys 

Gir/5 

ii                             15 

i 

12 

8 

i 

13 

2 

i 

14 

4 

i 

15 

2 

0 

16 

O 

O 

17 

2 

O 

18 

I 

I 

Total 


584 


157 


From  this  table  it  appears  that  among  the  families  of  the 
delinquent  boys,  there  were  in  277  cases  (47  per  cent)  six  or  more 
children,  and  in  122  cases  (21  per  cent)  eight  or  more.  Among  the 
families  of  the  girls,  in  54  cases  (34  per  cent)  there  were  six  or 
more  children,  and  in  21  (13  per  cent)  eight  or  more,  a  smaller 
proportion  of  large  families  than  among  the  boys.*  Nevertheless, 
some  of  the  girls  were  members  of  very  large  families;  one  girl,  for 
example,  belonged  to  a  German  family  where  there  were  18  chil- 
dren, and  another  to  a  Russian  family  where  there  had  been  14. 

The  question  occurs  whether  in  any  considerable  number 
of  cases  the  place  of  the  child  in  the  family,  that  is,  the  fact  of 
the  child  being  the  eldest  or  youngest,  had  any  bearing  upon  his 
delinquency.  It  is  obvious,  for  example,  that  in  cases  of  poverty, 
where  it  is  necessary  for  the  mother  to  go  to  work,  or  where  she 
is  dead  and  the  father  is  unable  to  pay  a  housekeeper,  the  eldest 
child  may  have  to  bear  the  burdens  naturally  belonging  to  the 
head  of  the  family.  It  is  likewise  true,  of  course,  that  in  the  case  of 
a  marriage  between  very  young  persons,  the  eldest  child  may  fail 
to  receive  the  amount  of  discipline  which  would  be  given  if  the  par- 
ents were  more  mature,  and  which  may,  in  fact,  be  given  to  the 
younger  children  of  the  same  family.  It  is  of  interest,  therefore, 
that  in  1 38  cases  (24  per  cent  of  the  total  number)  the  boy  who  was 

*  Attention  should  be  called  to  the  fact  that  the  girls'  families  appear  to  be 
disproportionately  small  because  of  the  fact  that  an  unduly  large  number  of  colored 
girls  is  included  in  this  Geneva  group  and  that  these  colored  families  have  a  very 
small  number  of  children.  Thus  18  of  the  25  families  with  only  one  child  were 
colored,  and  13  of  the  25  families  with  only  two  children  were  colored.  Only  7  of 
the  43  colored  girls  came  from  families  with  more  than  three  children. 


THE  CHILD  FROM  THE  CROWDED  HOME 

brought  to  court  was  the  eldest  child  in  the  family.*  It  has  been 
shown  that  this  often  means  a  large  number  of  younger  brothers 
and  sisters.  If  the  father  dies,  this  boy  is  the  only  person  to  whom 
the  bewildered  mother  can  turn  for  help,  and  he  is  often  expected, 
even  when  very  young,  to  help  carry  the  burden  of  the  family. 
An  interesting  case  of  this  sort  is  found  in  the  story  told  by  a 
Swedish  woman  who  had  seven  children  and  had  lost  her  husband 
when  the  youngest  child  was  five  days  old.  She  tried  washing 
as  a  means  of  supporting  the  family,  but  she  was  greatly  handi- 
capped and  finally  let  the  eldest  boy,  who  was  thirteen,  leave  school 
and  go  to  work.  He  got  into  bad  company,  began  to  go  wrong, 
and  was  ultimately  brought  into  court.  The  mother  thinks  she 
is  responsible  for  his  delinquency  because  she  put  him  to  work 
when  he  was  too  young  and  too  easily  tempted;  but  she  says  that 
she  and  "the  children  needed  his  help  so  much."  A  similar  case 
is  that  of  the  eldest  boy  in  a  Polish  family  of  four  children. 
The  family  had  always  been  very  poor  and  had  always  lived  in  a 
bad  neighborhood.  The  father  died  of  tuberculosis,  and  the 
mother  tried  very  hard  to  support  the  family  by  scrubbing  and 
washing.  It  was  of  course  necessary  for  the  boy  to  go  to  work  as 
soon  as  he  could  get  his  working  papers,  but  the  men  in  tlmplace 
where  he  found  a  job  were  a  rough,  drunken  crowd  who  had  a  very 
bad  influence  over  him.  The  offense  which  first  brought  him  into 
court  was  merely  stealing  a  watermelon  from  a  freight  car,  but 
he  has  now  been  sent  to  the  county  jail  for  a  year  on  the  charge 
of  shooting  a  man  in  a  quarrel.  He  had  been  working  steadily 
up  to  the  time  of  his  arrest,  trying  to  care  for  his  mother  and  his 
three  sisters. 

Or  it  may  be  that  the  child  on  whom  the  burden  falls  is  not 
the  eldest  in  fact,  but  the  eldest  available;  that  is,  the  eldest 
under  working  age  when  those  over  school  age  are  already  employed. 
In  many  instances  the  assumption  of  these  responsibilities  will 

*  The  following  table  shows  the  number  of  boys  who  were: 

Eldest  child  in  family 138 

Youngest  child  in  family 70 

Only  child  in  family 30 

Other  cases      .       .       .    - 346 

584 
9  I  17 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

lead  to  a  distressingly  sobering  effect  upon  the  small  housekeeper, 
but  in  others  there  will  be  results  like  those  in  a  case  already 
referred  to  where  the  little  eight-year-old  boy  became  the  family 
housekeeper.  In  a  similar  case  where  the  mother  had  committed 
suicide,  the  eldest  child  in  the  family,  a  girl  who  was  later  brought 
into  court  as  delinquent,  had  kept  house  when  only  nine  years 
old  for  the  father  and  the  younger  children.  The  father,  who 
drank,  was  a  day  laborer  but  worked  irregularly;  the  little  girl 
had  the  discouraging  task  of  caring  for  a  family  which  a  shiftless 
father  was  unwilling  to  support,  and  before  many  years  she  also 
had  shirked  responsibilities.  When  she  was  fifteen  years  old  her 
father  and  her  grandmother  brought  her  to  court  and  said  that 
she  had  been  for  some  time  "beyond  control."  She  was  sent  to 
Geneva  but  ran  away  and  is  now  supposed  to  be  an  inmate  of  a 
house  of  prostitution. 

On  the  other  hand,  of  course,  in  the  case  of  a  family  where 
the  home  is  crowded,  where  the  conditions  either  within  the 
house  or  in  the  neighborhood  are  bad,  there  is  less  chance  for 
training  in  the  case  of  younger  children  than  in  the  case  of  the 
older  ones,  because  with  the  birth  of  each  child  the  strain  upon 
the  family  resources  becomes  greater,  the  opportunity  of  the 
mother  to  safeguard  the  child  is  lessened,  and  he  is  at  the  mercy 
not  only  of  the  older  members  of  his  own  family  but  of  the 
disorderly  persons  of  the  neighborhood. 

There  are  many  illustrations  among  the  family  paragraphs 
of  confused  family  groupings  and  overcrowded  homes  that  chil- 
dren forsake  eagerly  for  the  wide  freedom  of  the  street.  Year 
after  year,  ever  since  the  establishment  of  the  court,  small  boys 
have  been  brought  in  for  such  offenses  as  sleeping  under  houses, 
sleeping  in  hallways,  sleeping  in  barns,  in  sheds,  basements,  and 
similar  places.  In  many  cases  the  child  is  trying  to  escape  from 
cruel  or  brutal  parents,  but  sometimes  the  simple  fact  of  an  un- 
comfortable, overcrowded  home  is  undoubtedly  the  cause.  The 
case  of  a  Polish  boy  who  was  brought  to  court  for  sleeping  in 
barns  when  the  alternative  was  sharing  a  small  apartment  with 
a  family  of  10  has  been  referred  to.  An  Irish  boy  nine  years 
old  was  found  sleeping  under  a  house  and  was  brought  to  court 
as  a  "vagrant."  In  his  home  there  were  n  persons  in  a  three- 

118 


THE   CHILD   FROM   THE   CROWDED   HOME 

room  apartment,  and  the  space  under  the  house  must  have 
seemed  peaceful  and  spacious  in  contrast.  A  German  boy,  who 
was  one  of  five  children,  was  brought  to  court  as  "incorrigible" 
for  sleeping  under  sidewalks.  Both  parents,  however,  were 
drunken  and  immoral,  and  the  home  in  which  he  refused  to  stay 
was  described  as  "four  filthy  rooms  in  the  basement  of  a  dilapi- 
dated old  cottage."  A  little  Italian  boy  was  found  sleeping  in  a 
haystack;  he  was  one  of  six  children;  his  father  was  paralyzed, 
and  his  mother  had  gone  to  live  with  her  sister.  In  the  home  of 
a  German  family  there  were  17  children;  the  father  drank 
heavily  and  finally  died  from  the  effects  of  drink;  the  mother,  who 
could  speak  very  little  English,  went  out  washing,  and  supple- 
mented the  family  earnings  still  further  by  adding  boarders  to 
the  already  overcrowded  house.  It  is  not  difficult  to  understand 
why  the  boy  preferred  "sleeping  out  nights."  It  is  undoubtedly 
the  discomforts  of  home,  quite  as  much  as  the  "roving  disposition" 
so  often  referred  to,  which  create  the  semi-homeless  little  boys 
who,  in  the  words  of  the  court  records,  "wander  the  streets  by  day 
and  sleep  in  barns  at  night." 

In  an  earlier  chapter*  it  was  pointed  out  that  the  problem 
of  the  step-parent  was  likely  to  be  one  of  family  friction  and  on 
that  account  its  discussion  seemed  more  appropriate  here  than  in 
the  chapter  dealing  with  orphan  children. 

Data  furnished  by  the  court  records!  show  that  in  the  case 

*  See  p.  99. 

fThe  following  data  showing  the  number  of  children  having  either  a  step- 
father or  a  stepmother  furnish  interesting  supplementary  information  regarding 
parental  condition  (see  Tables  19  and  20  relating  to  Parental  Condition  of  Delin- 
quent Children,  pp.  91  and  92). 

DATA  FROM  COURT  RECORDS 

Boys  Girls 

Total  number  of  children 11,413  2770 

Number  of  children  having  a  stepfather        .        220  71 

Number  of  children  having  a  stepmother       .152  70 

Total  number  having  a  step-parent          .       372  141 

Per  cent  having  a  step-parent  .      .        .         3.2  5.1 

DATA  FROM  FAMILY  SCHEDULES 

Boys  Girls 

Total  number  of  children 584  157 

Number  of  children  having  stepfather     .       .          47  17 

Number  of  children  having  stepmother                     37  19 

Total  number  having  a  step-parent          .          84  36 

Per  cent  having  a  step-parent  .       .       .       14.3  22.9 

IIQ 


THE   DELINQUENT   CHILD   AND   THE    HOME 

of  372  boys  and  of  141  girls,  the  natural  parent  after  death  or 
divorce  had  been  replaced  by  a  step-parent.  Here  again,  how- 
ever, the  actual  numbers  are  much  larger  than  the  court  records 
indicate,  for  in  a  large  number  of  cases  the  fact  that  the  parent 
is  a  step-parent  is  not  mentioned,  except  when  special  inquiry 
is  made.  Data  obtained  from  the  family  schedules  show,  therefore, 
that  among  the  1903-04  boy  sand  the  Geneva  girls  for  whom  family 
schedules  were  secured,  84  boys  and  36  girls  had  a  step-parent; 
that  is,  the  family  schedules  show  that  14  per  cent  of  the  boys  and  23 
per  cent  of  the  girls  had  a  step-parent  in  contrast  to  the  3  per  cent 
and  5  per  cent  indicated  by  the  data  obtained  from  the  court  records. 
There  are,  of  course,  many  cases*  in  which  the  fact  of 
having  a  step-parent  seems  to  have  a  very  direct  connection  with 
the  delinquency  of  the  boy  or  girl.  Two  young  Bohemian  boys 
who  belonged  to  a  family  of  six  children,  lost  their  mother  before 
they  were  ten  years  old.  Just  at  the  age  when  the  boys  most 
needed  wise  and  careful  guidance  the  father  married  a  young  girl. 
Soon  they  got  in  with  bad  companions  and  the  youngest  would 
never  live  at  home.  The  situation  was  complicated  by  the 
father's  suicide,  and  both  boys  became  delinquent  wards  of  the 
court  and  one  is  in  the  Bridewell  now.  Again,  in  the  case  of  one 
boy,  a  "repeater"  who  had  been  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School 
three  times,  it  was  said  that  he  "went  to  the  bad"  after  the 
mother's  death.  His  father  married  again  but  his  stepmother 
was  "pretty  hard  on  him"  and  was  "always  finding  fault";  he 
did  not  improve  much  under  probation,  and  according  to  the 
schedule  "  the  stepmother  seems  to  think  he  never  will."  Another 
case  of  interest  in  this  connection  is  that  of  a  Bohemian  family 
whose  home  is  now  broken  up.  The  father  was  not  poor;  he  was 

*  The  following  case  of  a  colored  family  in  which  the  home  was  comfortable 
enough,  but  in  which  things  were  shockingly  wrong  after  the  stepmother  came 
into  it,  is  not  quoted  in  the  text,  because  the  woman  was  criminal  and  the  family 
is  exceptional  rather  than  typical.  The  father  was  a  railway  porter  and  earned 
good  wages.  After  the  mother's  death,  when  the  father  paid  a  woman  to  care 
for  the  children,  they  got  on  very  well.  But  he  soon  married  again  and  the  step- 
mother was  very  unkind  to  the  children.  They  were  often  hungry  and  stole  coal 
to  sell  it  to  buy  food.  One  little  girl,  who  was  feebleminded,  was  burned  to  death 
and  the  stepmother  held  responsible.  The  two  brothers,  with  a  stepbrother,  were 
in  court  at  the  same  time.  The  younger  brother  had  tuberculosis  of  the  face  and 
hands.  The  stepmother  was  particularly  severe  with  the  eldest  boy  and  has  not 
allowed  him  to  stay  at  home  for  the  last  four  years. 

120 


THE   CHILD   FROM   THE   CROWDED   HOME 

a  money  lender  ("  banker")  as  well  as  a  carpenter;  but  he  was  brutal 
and  had  injured  the  boy  by  kicking  him  when  he  was  a  little  child. 
He  married  three  times  and  this  boy,  the  child  of  the  second  wife, 
was  cruelly  treated  by  the  third  wife.  In  another  case,  that  of 
a  Russian  Jewish  family,  the  father  had  had  four  wives  and  12 
children.  The  boy  that  was  brought  to  court  was  one  of  six  chil- 
dren by  the  first  wife,  who  never  immigrated  but  died  in  Russia 
when  the  boy  was  five  years  old.  The  boy's  first  stepmother  also 
had  six  children,  and  for  a  time  after  her  death  the  younger  children 
were  in  the  Jewish  Home  for  the  Friendless.  The  third  wife  was 
very  cruel  to  all  the  children  and  the  father  divorced  her.  The 
father  himself  is  very  indifferent  about  the  children,  and  although 
six  of  them  have  left  home  he  does  not  seem  to  care,  and  says  they 
"  were  never  satisfied  with  any  stepmother."  _ 

A  German  family  in  which  there  are  three  sets  of  children 
is  an  illustration  of  a  mixed  family  in  which  confusion  prevailed 
although  the  home  was  "  good  enough."  The  girl  who  became  de- 
linquent lost  her  mother  when  she  was  four.  Both  she  and  her 
older  sister  went  wrong,  and  while  the  father  and  stepmother 
attributed  the  girl's  downfall  to  the  influence  of  a  public  amuse- 
ment place  to  which  she  went,  it  is  significant  that  the  stepmother 
could  do  nothing  to  hold  either  one  of  them. 

The  court  records  also  furnish  a  good  many  illustrations  of 
cases  in  which  the  girl's  relations  to  her  stepmother  seem  to  have 
had  a  direct  connection  with  her  appearance  in  court. 

A  typical  case  is  that  of  Mamie,  a  fifteen-year-old  girl  whose 
father  was  a  German  laborer  and  whose  stepmother  brought  her 
into  court  as  incorrigible  because  she  went  to  dance  halls  and 
stayed  away  from  home  at  night.  The  girl  claimed  that  the  step- 
mother ill-treated  her  and  found  fault  because  she  spent  her  own 
money  and  did  not  turn  in  all  her  wages.  A  similarly  typical  case 
is  that  of  Maggie,  a  fifteen-year-old  American  girl  who  had  a  third 
stepmother.  The  girl  said  she  needed  to  get  out  of  the  home  sur- 
roundings, and  claimed  that  her  parents  had  several  times  put  her 
out  of  the  house  so  that  she  had  been  compelled  to  seek  a  room 
elsewhere. 

Sometimes  there  is  just  general  incompetence  and  shift- 
lessness,  which  manifests  itself  in  domestic  as  well  as  in  industrial 

121 


THE    DELINQUENT   CHILD   AND   THE    HOME 

and  other  relationships.  This  may  be  illustrated  by  the  case  of 
an  Irish-American  family  of  four  children;  the  father  was  out  of 
work;  the  mother  incompetent  and  shiftless;  the  home  very  dirty 
and  dilapidated.  The  boy  who  was  brought  to  court  at  fifteen 
was  earning  good  wages  and  was  the  only  one  in  the  family  who 
was  working.  Another  illustration  of  the  same  point  is  a  German 
family  with  eight  children;  the  father  a  teamster,  the  mother  not 
very  intelligent,  the  home  very  crowded  and  dirty,  the  neighbor- 
hood rough.  When  the  boy  was  fifteen  he  was  arrested  for  stealing 
grain  from  freight  cars,  and  although  first  put  on  probation  he  is 
now  at  Pontiac.  Not  very  different  is  the  case  of  a  German  family 
with  twelve  children,  one  of  whom,  a  boy  of  fourteen,  was  brought 
into  court  for  stealing  grain.  The  father  is  a  pipe  fitter  who  earns 
good  wages  but  who  drinks  and  is  often  out  of  work.  They  have 
recently  bought  a  six-room  house  but  have  a  mortgage  of  $2000 
to  pay,  and  at  the  present  time  no  one  in  the  family  is  at  work. 
The  mother  is  shiftless  and  very  lax  in  her  control  of  the  children, 
and  the  home  is  dirty  and  crowded. 

A  more  unhappy  case  was  one  in  which  there  was  not  only 
lack  of  sympathy  but  in  which  the  parents  were  evidently  more 
interested  in  their  dry  goods  store  than  in  their  children.  The 
mother  took  charge  of  the  store  while  the  father  went  out  to  sell 
goods;  they  had  had  five  children,  three  of  whom  had  died  of 
tuberculosis.  The  boy,  who  was  brought  to  court  three  times, 
was  "not  on  good  terms"  with  his  parents;  the  mother  said  he 
was  "crazy"  and  refused  to  allow  the  younger  brother  to  associate 
with  him.  The  record  says,  "The  mother  cared  more  for  business 
than  for  the  boys."  In  the  case  of  another  boy,  a  "repeater" 
who  had  been  in  court  four  times,  the  father  was  a  coal  dealer 
and  was  said  to  "care  for  nothing  but  making  money."  He  was 
so  stern  that  the  boys  were  afraid  of  him,  while  the  mother  was 
not  very  strong  and  "always  too  tired  to  take  much  care  of  the 
children."  This  boy,  who  was  brought  to  court  first  for  truancy 
at  the  age  of  nine  and  sent  to  the  parental  school,  was  brought  in 
the  fourth  time  when  he  was  thirteen  charged  with  being  incor- 
rigible. His  parents  said  that  they  could  not  control  him,  that  he 
was  thoroughly  unreliable;  and  they  were  evidently  relieved  to 
have  him  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School. 

122 


THE   CHILD   FROM   THE   CROWDED   HOME 

And  then  there  are  the  pathetic  instances  of  a  complete  lack 
of  understanding  or  interest  on  the  part  of  the  parents  though  they 
may  be  efficient  and  conform  with  the  formal  requirements  of 
their  parenthood.  There  is  the  case  of  a  German  family  of  1 1 
children  in  which  the  boy  who  had  been  very  bad  and  in  court  four 
times  has  now  run  away  from  home  and  the  parents  plainly  "  hope 
he  will  not  come  back."  Or  there  is  the  case  of  another  boy  who 
came  from  what  is  known  as  "a  good  home"  but  who  had  been  in 
the  John  Worthy  School  three  times.  The  probation  officer  thinks 
that  the  boy  has  finally  done  well  and  that  he  v/ill  be  all  right  now 
that  he  is  away  from  his  old  companions;  but  "there  is  no  sym- 
pathy between  the  mother  and  son;  the  mother  says  that  the  boy 
is  very  bad  indeed,  that  he  was  too  proud  to  work  and  too  good 
looking  to  do  anything  but  wear  good  clothes."  A  Danish  boy 
who  was  first  brought  to  court  at  the  age  of  twelve  and  then  came 
in  again  repeatedly,  was  sent  twice  to  the  John  Worthy  School  and 
once  to  St.  Charles,  although  he  had  a  "good  home";  but  during 
his  mother's  illness  he  became  very  wild  and  at  this  time  when  he 
most  needed  sympathetic  care,  the  record  states  that  "the  father 
was  hard  on  him  and  thought  him  'a  bad  lot/'  Similarly,  a 
Russian  boy  who  was  in  court  three  times  and  finally  sent  to  the 
John  Worthy  School  for  a  year,  came  from  a  clean,  decent  home, 
but  the  schedule  showed  that  his  parents,  who  were  respectable, 
industrious  people,  "evidently  did  not  understand  the  boy  "and 
taunted  him  with  having  been  arrested. 

Sometimes  the  parents  may  really  dislike  the  child,  as  in 
the  case  of  a  German  family  with  three  children.  The  father  was 
a  carpenter  but  drank  and  gambled  and  was  idle  most  of  the  time; 
the  mother  washed  in  a  laundry  and  worked  very  hard.  The 
father  "did  not  like  the  boy,"  was  unkind  to  him,  and  brought 
him  into  court  saying  he  could  do  nothing  with  him,  and  finally 
refused  to  allow  him  to  live  at  home. 

In  studying  the  home  circumstances  of  these  children  it 
seemed  important  to  ascertain  the  age  of  the  parents  at  marriage, 
since  if  parents  are  too  young  to  assume  the  responsibilities  of  mar- 
ried life,  the  effect  upon  the  training  and  discipline  of  the  children 
will  probably  be  harmful.  Tables  23  and  24,  on  the  following  page, 
make  clear  the  fact  that  this  was  the  case  in  many  instances. 

123 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

TABLE  23. — AGE  AT  MARRIAGE  OF  PARENTS  OF  DELINQUENT  BOYS 

(DATA  FOR  404  FATHERS  AND  430  MOTHERS,  FROM 

FAMILY  SCHEDULES) 


FATHERS 

MOTHERS 

Age  at  Marriage 

Number 

Per  Cent 

Number 

Per  Cent 

Under  16  years        

24a 

5-6 

16  and  under  18       

7 

'•7 

62 

14.4 

1  8  and  under  20       

3' 

7-7 

87 

2O.2 

20  and  under  25       

169 

41.8 

198 

46.1 

25  and  under  30       

137 

33-9 

44 

IO.2 

30  or  over         

60 

14.9 

'5 

3-5 

Total  

404 

IOO.O 

430 

IOO.O 

a  The  ages  of  these  24  mothers  were  as  follows:   12  years  old,  i ;   13  years,  2; 
1 4  years,  6;   15  years,  15. 


TABLE  24. — AGE  AT  MARRIAGE  OF  PARENTS  OF  DELINQUENT  GIRLS 
(DATA  FOR  87  FATHERS  AND  94  MOTHERS) 


FATHERS 

MOTHERS 

Age  at  Marriage 

Number 

Per  Cent 

Number 

Per  Cent 

Under  16  years        

7a 

7-4 

16  and  under  18       

2 

2-3 

12 

12.7 

18  and  under  20       

6 

6.9 

23 

24.5 

20  and  under  25       

39 

44.8 

37 

39-4 

25  and  under  30       

20 

23.0 

1  1 

11.7 

30  and  over              

20 

23.0 

4 

4-3 

Total  

87 

IOO.O 

94 

IOO.O 

a  The  ages  of  these  mothers  were:   12  years  old,  i ;   14  years,  i ;   15  years,  5. 

It  appears  from  these  tables  that  a  considerable  number  of 
these  children  were  under  the  care  of  very  young  mothers;  20 
per  cent  of  the  mothers  both  of  the  boys  and  of  the  girls  were 
married  before  they  were  eighteen,  and  many  were  younger  than 
this;  thus  6  per  cent  of  the  mothers  of  the  boys  and  7  per  cent  of 
the  girls'  mothers  were  under  sixteen  when  they  were  married. 

124 


THE    CHILD   FROM   THE   CROWDED   HOME 

The  ages  of  the  fathers  are  of  course  higher  than  those  of  the 
mothers,  but  it  is  significant  that  9  per  cent  of  the  fathers  both  of 
the  boys  and  of  the  girls  were  married  before  they  were  twenty. 

While  it  would  be  impossible  to  connect  the  fact  of  any 
child's  delinquency  directly  with  the  fact  that  his  parents  were  too 
young  to  rear  him  properly,  yet  there  are  cases  to  be  found  where 
the  immaturity  and  youthful  inexperience  of  the  father  or  mother 
have  undoubtedly  been  among  the  factors  tending  to  deprive  the 
child  of  the  necessary  training  and  guidance. 

There  is,  for  example,  the  case  of  an  Italian  boy  whose 
father  was  twenty  and  whose  mother  was  seventeen  when  they 
were  married.  The  boy  was  brought  in  first  as  incorrigible  and 
later,  on  four  different  occasions,  for  stealing.  His  parents, 
however,  did  not  "think  stealing  very  bad,"  but  were  very  light- 
hearted  and  "refused  to  take  the  charges  seriously."  There  is 
the  boy  whose  mother  was  married  when  she  was  twelve  and 
was  soon  deserted;  she  came  with  her  child  to  Chicago  and  tried 
to  support  herself  by  washing  for  a  time,  but  she  later  married 
again.  The  boy  became  hopelessly  delinquent;  at  ten  he  was 
brought  into  court  as  incorrigible,  at  eleven  as  disorderly,  at 
thirteen  for  stealing.  Again,  in  the  case  of  a  boy  "whose  parents 
both  drank  and  whose  mother  kept  a  low  rooming  house,"  it 
is  of  interest  to  know  that  the  mother  was  thirteen  and  the  father 
seventeen  when  they  were  married  and  that  four  of  the  children 
had  run  away  from  home. 

It  is  not  maintained  that  such  unfavorable  conditions  as 
have  been  described  in  this  chapter  inevitably  lead  to  delinquency. 
It  is  clear  that  the  problem  presented  is  much  less  serious  than 
that  of  real  misfortune  or  degradation,  but  although  institutional 
care  is  less  needed  in  such  cases,  they  make  equally  plain  the  need 
of  such  care  and  oversight  as  the  court  alone  can  give. 

The  probation  officer  frequently  helps  to  bring  order  into 
the  disorderly  home  and  she  can  often  give  advice,  not  only  about 
the  children,  but  about  the  management  of  the  house,  which  the 
mother  sorely  needs.  In  such  families  the  officer  who  is  faithful 
and  patient,  resourceful  and  understanding,  soon  comes  to  be  re- 
garded not  merely  as  an  agent  of  the  court  but  as  a  welcome  friend. 


125 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  IGNORANT  CHILD:  THE  PROBLEM  OF 
THE  SCHOOL 

IF  the  environment  that  has  influenced  these  delinquent  boys 
and  girls  is  to  be  correctly  understood,  an  inquiry  into  the 
relation  between  the  child  and  the  school  is  a  necessary  sup- 
plement to  the  chapters  dealing  with  conditions  in  the  home.  It 
was  not  possible  to  obtain  the  data  for  a  thorough  examination  of 
the  school  status  of  the  children  brought  to  court  as  delinquent,  but 
such  material  as  was  collected  is  believed  to  be  both  interesting  and 
important.  Although  the  court  record  calls  not  only  for  the  name 
of  the  school  which  the  child  has  been  attending,  but  also  for  the 
grade  and  the  teacher's  name,  these  latter  items  are  very  rarely 
given,  and  in  a  large  proportion  of  cases  there  is  no  information 
whatever  regarding  school  attendance.  The  record  is  left  blank 
much  more  frequently  for  the  girl  than  for  the  boy,  and  the  pro- 
portion of  cases  in  which  there  was  an  entire  absence  of  informa- 
tion relating  to  the  school  attendance  was  so  large  for  both  the  girls 
and  the  boys  that  this  material  in  the  court  records  had  to  be  dis- 
carded as  valueless. 

Because  of  the  meager  information  furnished  by  the  court 
records,  and  because  it  was  considered  inexpedient  at  that  time 
to  attempt  an  investigation  of  the  actual  school  status  of  these 
children  by  visiting  their  former  teachers  and  principals,  a  printed 
statement  *  was  prepared  with  blanks  to  be  filled  out  by  the  child 
himself  under  the  supervision  of  the  investigator  when  the  family 
schedule  was  secured.  This  "school  statement"  asked  for  his 
present  age,  his  age  at  beginning  and  his  age  and  grade  at  leaving 
school,  the  school  or  schools  attended  in  Chicago,  the  last  grade 
attended,  and  finally  a  list  of  the  studies  which  the  child  thought 
*  For  a  copy  of  this  form  see  Appendix  VI. 
126 


THE    IGNORANT   CHILD 

had  helped  him  most  to  earn  money,  with  the  reason  for  his  choice 
of  subjects. 

Out  of  the  584  boys  for  whom  family  schedules  were  obtained, 
281  boys  filled  in  the  school  statements.  These  latter  have  been 
attached  to  the  paragraphs  about  the  child's  family  as  furnish- 
ing additional  information  of  value.*  The  data  furnished  by  the 
statements  regarding  the  child's  age  at  beginning  and  leaving 
school,  the  school,  and  last  grade  attended,  have  been  tabulated. 
Some  question  may  be  raised  as  to  whether  these  281  boys  are 
typical  of  the  whole  584,  and  it  should  be  pointed  out  that  in 
general  the  281  were  the  best  rather  than  the  worst  boys  in  the 
group.  The  most  illiterate  made  no  attempt  to  fill  out  the  sched- 
ules. And  from  the  boys  who  are  still  in  the  John  Worthy 
School,  the  state  reformatory  at  Pontiac,  the  state  penitentiary  at 
Joliet,  the  house  of  correction,  or  similar  places,  and  from  those 
who  have  become  permanent  tramps  and  have  been  lost  track  of, 
no  statements  could  be  secured.  It  seems  fair  then  to  consider 
these  281  as  the  better  half  of  the  group.  And,  finally,  before  at- 
tempting a  discussion  of  the  school  status  of  the  delinquent  boys 
attention  must  be  called  to  the  fact  that  only  5474,  or  48  per  cent, 
of  the  11,413  boys  brought  into  the  juvenile  court  during  the 
decade  1899-09  were  of  compulsory  school  age,  that  is,  under 
fourteen;  for  1903-04,  the  year  selected  for  special  study,  538,  or 
49  per  cent,  of  the  1087  boys  brought  to  court  were  under  this  age. 

Passing  on  then  to  the  data  furnished  by  the  school  state- 
ments, the  important  points  to  be  noticed  are  the  age  at  which  these 
boys  entered  and  left  school  and  the  progress  they  made  as  indi- 
cated by  the  grade  reached.  In  Table  25,  page  128,  the  data 
relating  to  the  ages  at  which  the  boys  of  different  nationalities 
entered  school  are  presented,  together  with  the  totals  for  all 
nationalities. 

From  this  table  it  appears  that  10  per  cent  of  the  boys  who 
gave  their  age  at  beginning  school  had  entered  by  the  time  they 
were  five  years  old,  48  per  cent  when  they  were  six,  25  per  cent 
when  they  were  seven,  and  1 7  per  cent  not  until  they  were  eight  or 
older;  to  summarize,  83  per  cent  of  the  boys  entered  school  before 

*  One  hundred  of  these  family  paragraphs,  many  of  them  with  the  school 
statement  attached,  will  be  found  in  Appendix  IV,  p.  267. 

I27 


THE    DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND   THE   HOME 


TABLE     25. — AGE    AT     WHICH    274    DELINQUENT     BOYS      ENTERED 
SCHOOL. — BY   NATIONALITY 


AGE 

Nationality 

5  or 
younger 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10  or 
older 

Total 

American  

a 

16 

6 

I 

i 

27 

Bohemian  

4 

10 

2 

16 

Colored  

a 

4 

j 

i 

I 

2 

12 

English  

6 

a 

I 

2 

22 

German  

6 

20 

IQ 

I 

56 

Irish  

6 

ai 

IO 

I 

I 

I 

CQ 

Italian  

a 

4 

a 

2 

a 

2A 

Polish  

c 

IO 

e 

a 

32 

Russian  
Scandinavian  .  .  . 
Other  

I 
I 

6 
10 

2 

4 
i 

2 
2 

I 

8 

'3 
14 

Total  

28 

1*1 

68 

21 

ia 

I  a 

274a 

Per  cent  

IO.2 

47.8 

24.8 

7.6 

4.8 

4.8 

IOO.O 

a  Although  281  schedules  were  obtained,  many  of  these  did  not  contain  all 
of  the  items  asked  for;  thus  only  274  boys  filled  out  the  blank  asking  for  age  on 
entering  school,  etc. 

they  were  eight  years  old.  The  nationality  of  these  boys  is  given 
with  their  ages  in  this  table  because,  while  only  17  per  cent  of  all 
the  boys  entered  when  they  were  eight  or  older,  it  is  significant  that 
when  the  data  for  each  nationality  are  considered  separately  it 
appears  that  33  per  cent  of  the  Italian  boys,  33  per  cent  of  the 
colored  boys,  and  53  per  cent  of  the  Polish  boys  entered  at  eight 
years  or  older,  and  are,  therefore,  considerably  behind  the  average 
child  in  coming  under  school  influence  and  discipline.  It  is  quite 
probable  that  in  the  case  of  all  these  children  who  entered  late, 
their  earlier ^ears  were  spent  in  places  where  they  had  no  oppor- 
tunity of  attending  school,  and  that  the  age  at  coming  to  Chicago 
and  the  age*~af  entering  school  correspond  closely. 

More  important  than  the  age  at  entering  school  is  the  ques- 
tion of  how  long  they  remain  in  school  and  what  progress  they  are 
able  to  make  while  there.     Data  relating  to  both  of  these  points 
were  furnished  by  262  of  the  281  school  statements  and  are  pre- 
128 


THE    IGNORANT  CHILD 

sented  in  Table  26.  A  study  of  this  table  shows  that  the  child's 
leaving  school  had  apparently  no  relation  to  the  fact  of  his 
having  reached  any  particular  standard.  The  great  majority  of 
these  boys  (190,  or  73  per  cent)  left  at  the  age  of  fourteen  or  before 
they  had  reached  the  legal  age,  no  matter  what  grade  they  had 
reached.*  For  example,  the  142  fourteen-year-old  boys  who  left 
were  in  all  grades  ranging  from  the  first  to  the  eighth.  It  is  very 
significant  that  48  boys,  18  per  cent  of  the  total  number,  left 
school  illegally  before  they  had  reached  the  age  of  fourteen  in  spite 
of  the  compulsory  education  law,  that  only  72  boys  remained  after 
the  age  of  fourteen  and  of  these  only  31,  12  per  cent  of  the  whole 
number,  stayed  until  they  were  sixteen. 

TABLE   26. — LAST    GRADE    ATTENDED    BY    262    DELINQUENT    BOYS, 
AND   AGE   AT   LEAVING    SCHOOL 


Age 

GRADE 

Total 

Per 
Cent 

i  si 

2nd 

3rd 

40) 

& 

6th 

7tb 

8fb 

High  Scbool 

10  

i 

i 

I 

3 
30 

2 

7 
II 

7 

i 

2 

2 
I 

5 
40 
142 
4i 
3i 

•7 
•4 
1.9 

15-3 
54.2 

•5-7 
1  1.8 

II  

12  

2 

8 
16 
6 

2 

i 

8 

13  

6 

i 

5 
5 

2 
2 

8 
44 
4 
3 

14  .  . 

i 

29 

12 

8 

15  

8 
1  1 

16  or  over  .    ... 

i 

2 

Total  

2 

.8 

9 
3-4 

•4 

34 
13.0 

60 
22.9 

58 

53 

2O.2 

29 
II.  I 

3 

262 

IOO.O 

Per  cent  

5-3 

22.1 

1.2 

IOO.O 

A  further  study  of  the  table  shows  that  these  children  not  ) 
only  leave  school  early  but  make  little  progress  while  they  are  / 
there.  Thus  it  appears  that  only  three  out  of  262  boys  ever  f 

«  - 

*  For  a  very  interesting  discussion  of  this  subject,  reference  is  again  made 
to  the  Report  on  Condition  of  Woman  and  Child  Wage-Earners  in  the  United 
States,  Vol.  VII.  Conditions  under  which  Children  Leave  School  to  go  to  Work. 
United  States  Bureau  of  Labor.  (Senate  document  645,  6ist  Cong.  2d  sess. ) 
Washington,  D.  C.,  1910. 

129 


THE   DELINQUENT   CHILD   AND   THE    HOME 

reached  the  high  school,  that  only  29  others  ever  reached  the 
eighth  grade,  that  119  (45  per  cent)  did  not  get  beyond  the  fifth 
grade,  that  25  (9  per  cent)  failed  to  get  beyond  the  third  grade, 
that  nine  boys  had  never  passed  out  of  the  second  grade,  and 
that  two  had  never  got  out  of  the  first.*  The  backwardness  of 
these  boys  in  school  can  perhaps  be  better  understood  by  compar- 
ing the  grades  reached  by  them  with  the  grades  reached  by  children 
of  the  same  age  who  have  made  a  normal  rate  of  progress.  That  is, 
the  child  entering  the  first  grade  at  seven — the  compulsory  school 
age — should  be  in  the  second  grade  at  eight,  in  the  third  at  nine, 
and  so  on.f  Allowing,  however,  one  year  for  failure  to  pass  or  for  a 
late  start,  he  should  be  in  the  second  grade  at  nine,  in  the  third  at 
ten,  and  in  the  next  higher  grade  for  each  added  year.  In  Table 
26,  the  heavy  zigzag  line  has  been  drawn  to  indicate  this  relation 
between  age  and  grade;  the  numbers  above  the  line  represent  the 
boys  who  have  passed  on  at  the  normal  rate  of  progress,  as  thus 
described.  All  the  numbers  below  the  line  represent  boys  who 
have  failed  to  make  such  progress.  But  to  say  that  188,  or  72 
per  cent,  of  the  total  number  of  boys  had  fallen  below  this  line 
of  progress  is  to  give  too  favorable  an  impression  of  the  situation, 
for  such  a  statement  fails  to  give  any  idea  of  the  extremely  back- 
ward condition  of  many  of  these  boys.  Eighteen  of  the  boys  in 
the  first,  second,  and  third  grades,  for  example,  were  fourteen  or 
older;  of  the  sixteen-year-old  boys,  one  was  in  the  first  grade,  two 
were  in  the  third  grade,  two  in  the  fourth,  three  in  the  fifth,  eight 
in  the  sixth,  and  although  fifteen  were  above  this  grade,  only 
two  were  in  high  school,  where  the  normal  sixteen-year-old  boy 
belongs. 

Another  method  of  ascertaining  how  far  these  delinquent 
boys  were  behind  normal  boys  of  the  same  age  when  they  left 
school  is  to  compare  the  grades  which  they  reached  with  the  grades 
reached  by  all  the  children  who  left  school  in  a  given  year  to  go  to 

*  It  is  perhaps  of  interest  that  no  American  boys  were  in  the  lowest  groups. 
The  nationality  of  the  boys  in  the  first  and  second  grades  was  as  follows:  German,  i ; 
Irish,  i;  Italian,  3;  Polish,  5;  Colored,  i.  The  immigrant  child  suffers  not  only 
from  the  fact  that  his  parents  have  as  yet  failed  to  adjust  themselves  to  the  idea 
that  the  community  has  a  right  to  say  that  children  under  a  certain  age  must  be 
kept  in  school,  but  also  from  the  handicap  of  trying  to  use  a  strange  language. 

t  Ayres,  Leonard  P.:  Laggards  in  Our  Schools,  p.  38.  Russell  Sage  Foun- 
dation Publication.  New  York,  Charities  Publication  Committee,  1909. 

130 


THE    IGNORANT  CHILD 

work.  The  reports  of  the  Chicago  Board  of  Education  do  not 
make  possible  such  a  comparison  for  every  year  but  they  furnish 
statistics  for  the  year  1909  which  show  the  grades  last  attended  by 
the  children  who  were  given  age  and  school  certificates  during  the 
year.*  From  these  figures  it  appears  that  only  28  per  cent  of  the 
boys  who  took  out  working  papers  during  the  year  1908-09  had 
failed  to  reach  the  sixth  grade,  and  only  12  per  cent  had  stopped 
before  they  reached  the  fifth  grade,  whereas  Table  26  shows  that 
45  per  cent  of  the  delinquent  boys  were  below  the  sixth  grade  and 
23  per  cent  were  below  the  fifth. 

The  small  number  of  boys  who  remain  in  school  after  they 
have  reached  the  age  of  fourteen  means  of  course  that  the  great 
majority  are  called  upon  to  assume  some  of  the  pecuniary  burdens 
of  the  family.  It  was  pointed  out  in  an  earlier  chapter  that  in 
a  very  large  proportion  of  cases  the  delinquent  boy  is  the  eldest 
child  in  a  large  family  and  that  the  great  majority  of  these  families 
are  poor.  His  slight  wage-earning  capacity  must,  therefore,  be 
utilized  at  the  earliest  possible  moment  at  which  his  age  and  school 
certificate  can  be  secured  and  he  can  become  a  supplementary 
wage-earner  with  the  sanction  of  the  law.  The  temptation  to 
evade  the  law  is  sometimes  too  great  to  resist,  and  the  child  is  not 
only  deprived  of  the  slight  educational  requirement  prescribed  by 
the  law,  but  is  given  perhaps  a  first  lesson  in  law-breaking  by 
parents  who  swear  that  he  is  fourteen  when  he  and  they  alike  know 
that  he  has  not  yet  reached  that  age. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  child  thus  deprived  of  opportunities  is 
the  child  most  in  need  of  them.  To  many  of  these  boys,  however, 
leaving  school  means  much  more  than  a  loss  of  opportunity.  It 
means  being  placed  in  the  way  of  great  and  varied  temptations 
while  the  will  is  weak  and  the  mind  not  yet  intelligent.  Work  is 
not  always  easy  to  find,  and  desirable  work  which  offers  even  a 
small  amount  of  training  and  awakens  ambition  and  interest  is 
hopelessly  scarce.  Attention  has  already  been  called  to  the  large 
number  of  boys  who  become  messengers  or  errand  boys,  or  enter 
some  similarly  undesirable  occupation.  The  boy  out  of  school  at 
fourteen  or  the  ages  immediately  following,  is  likely  to  be  also  a  boy 
*  See  Report  of  Chicago  Board  of  Education,  1909,  p.  81. 

131 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND   THE   HOME 

out  of  work,  or  a  boy  in  an  occupation  associating  him  with  bad 
companions  or  offering  other  temptations  to  delinquency.* 
y  It  appeared  in  Table  2t  that  half  the  delinquent  boys  brought 
to  court  came  at  the  age  of  fourteen  or  in  the  two  years  immediately 
following  their  withdrawal  from  school.  If  the  provision  in  the 
state  law  which  requires  the  compulsory  school  attendance  of  boys 
between  the  ages  of  fourteen  and  sixteen  who  are  not  working  could 
be  rigorously  enforced,  the  number  of  delinquents  would  perhaps 
decrease  during  these  years. J  Ever  since  the  year  1905,  the  de- 
partment of  compulsory  education  in  the  city  of  Chicago  has 
called  attention  in  each  succeeding  annual  report  to  the  necessity 
for  better  means  of  protecting  and  disciplining  boys  between  four- 
teen and  sixteen,  not  merely  because  they  become  demoralized 
themselves,  but  because  they  encourage  smaller  boys  to  become 
truant  and  delinquent. §  It  is,  of  course,  a  commonplace  to  say 
that  until  the  enforcement  of  the  law  is  made  possible,  these  boys 
are  on  the  high  road  to  delinquency,  and,  in  spite  of  six  years  of  agi- 
tation, there  is  still  urgent  need  of  improvement  in  the  facilities  for 
dealing  with  them.  The  latest  report  of  the  superintendent  of 
compulsory  education  issued  in  June,  1911,  strongly  emphasizes 
"the  necessity  for  better  provision  for  the  correction  and  care  of 
children  between  fourteen  and  sixteen  years  of  age  who  are  beyond 
parental  control  and  who  prefer  idleness  to  school  attendance  or 
employment The  only  recourse  under  present  condi- 
tions against  a  fourteen-year-old  truant  who  has  committed  no 

*  See  pp.  74  and  79.  Of  special  interest  in  this  connection  is  the  Report  on 
Boy  Labour  by  Cyril  Jackson,  in  the  Reports  of  the  Royal  Commission  on  the  Poor 
Laws,  Appendix,  Vol.  XX.  Notice  also  recurring  annual  statements  of  the  difficulty 
presented  by  such  boys  in  the  reports  of  Superintendent  W.  L.  Bodine  of  the 
Compulsory  Education  Department,  Chicago  Board  of  Education. 

t  See  Chapter  1 1,  p.  24. 

J  An  amendment  to  the  law  under  which  the  parental  school  is  limited  to 
the  care  of  boys  under  fourteen  was  urgently  pressed  upon  the  Illinois  legislature  of 
1911  on  this  express  ground  by  the  superintendent  of  the  compulsory  education 
department. 

§  See  Chicago  Board  of  Education,  Fifty-first  Annual  Report,  1905,  in 
which  the  following  statement  appears  in  the  report  of  the  superintendent  of  com- 
pulsory education.  "There  are  many  idle  boys  between  the  ages  of  fourteen  and 
sixteen  on  the  streets  of  Chicago.  .  .  .  Many  of  these  boys  do  not  go  to  work 
because  employers,  as  a  rule,  prefer  a  boy  who  has  attained  the  age  of  sixteen  years 
in  order  that  they  may  have  employes  whose  employment  and  hours  are  not  regu- 
lated by  the  Child  Labor  Law.  These  idle  street  boys  over  compulsory  education 
age,  frequently  encourage  smaller  boys  to  become  truants  and  delinquents." 

132 


THE   IGNORANT  CHILD 

other  offense  than  truancy,  is  to  charge  him  with  incorrigible  or 
delinquent  conduct  and  ask  his  commitment  to  the  John  Worthy 
School  or  St.  Charles.  The  former  is  a  prison  school  where  the 
worst  type  of  delinquent  boys  is  sent.  St.  Charles  has  not 
sufficient  capacity  to  provide  for  urgent  delinquent  cases."* 

Coming  finally  to  that  part  of  the  school  statement  in  which 
the  boy  attempts  to  tell  which  studies  have  helped  him  most  "to 
earn  money"  there  is  some  unique  and  interesting  material.  It  is, 
obviously,  information  which  does  not  lend  itself  to  tabulation  and 
which  cannot  even  be  summarized  in  definite  and  precise  terms. 
But  these  poor  attempts  at  writing  show  much  more  vividly  than 
any  statement  of  the  number  of  years  which  the  boys  spent  in 
school,  or  of  the  grades  which  they  reached,  the  poverty  of  their 
equipment. 

Although  any  attempt  to  classify  these  statements  is  difficult, 
some  are  sufficiently  alike  to  be  discussed  in  groups.  There  are, 
first,  the  statements  belonging  to  the  most  handicapped  boys;  the 
boys  who,  while  they  are  able  to  make  the  figures  to  fill  in  the  blanks 
left  for  age  and  grade,  fail  in  the  attempt  to  write  a  single  word.  The 
names  of  the  schools,  or  of  the  studies,  which  they  tried  to  write  are 
alike  illegible;  in  a  few  cases  the  boy  has  scrawled  his  own  name, 
which  the  blank  does  not  call  for,  as  if  in  a  brave  attempt  to  show 
that  he  could  after  all  write  something.  For  example,  two  Italian 
boys  of  seventeen  and  twenty  who  were  in  the  second  grade,  and 
a  German  boy  of  nineteen  who  thought  he  was  in  the  third,  seem 
unable  to  write  any  word  at  all;  another  nineteen-year-old  German 
boy  and  a  colored  boy  of  fifteen  can  write  only  their  names;  while 

*  Chicago  Board  of  Education.  Fifty-seventh  Annual  Report  for  the  year 
ending  June  30,  1911,  p.  138.  Report  of  Superintendent  Bodine  of  the  compul- 
sory education  department.  Further  quotation  from  this  report  may  be  of  inter- 
est. "The  social  waste  in  a  boy's  life  between  fourteen  and  sixteen  often  deter- 
mines his  future  career  and  citizenship,"  writes  the  superintendent.  "Many 
employers  do  not  want  a  juvenile  employe  under  sixteen  years  of  age;  they  can- 
not become  apprentices.  Principals  do  not  care  to  have  the  irregular  attendance 
of  the  fourteen-to-sixteen-year-old  pupil  who  alternates  between  school  and  work 
so  much,  seeking  employment.  These  older  boys  influence  younger  ones — and 
herein  lies  a  great  handicap  to  truant  officers.  It  accounts,  in  a  large  measure, 
for  the  increase  in  truancy  in  some  districts,  although  many  of  the  fourteen- 
to-sixteen-year-old  boys  are  repeatedly  taken  from  the  streets,  and  some  remain 
in  school.  There  is  no  central  juvenile  employment  agency,  and  conditions  could 
be  better  if  one  were  established,  to  expedite  the  employment  of  boys  and  girls  as 
soon  as  possible  after  they  secure  their  age  and  school  certificates." 
10  ,33 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

four  Polish  boys,  one  fourteen  years  old,  two  eighteen,  and  one 
nineteen,  can  scarcely  write  a  word  that  can  be  read,  though  the 
attempts  which  they  made  seem  to  indicate  that  they  believed 
themselves  able  to  write.  In  this  latter  group  belong  also  two 
Bohemian  boys,  seventeen  and  twenty  years  old,  a  German  boy 
of  nineteen,  a  Danish  boy  of  fifteen,  a  Norwegian  of  nineteen,  and 
a  seventeen-year-old  Irish  boy  who  was  born  in  this  country. 

In  another  group  are  the  statements  of  25  boys  who  are 
slightly  better  off  in  that  they  are  able  to  write  a  word  or  two,  and 
in  a  few  cases  to  attempt  a  labored  excuse  for  a  sentence.  One 
would  hesitate,  however,  to  say  that  they  were  able  to  write.  The 
eighteen-year-old  boy  who  says  "i  can  to  rede"  and  the  boy  of 
nineteen  who  says  "It  habs  me  Count"  are  typical  of  the  small 
number  who  attempted  the  difficult  question  regarding  the  studies 
which  had  "  helped  most." 

In  the  next  large  group,  which  includes  the  majority  of  the 
remaining  schedules,  the  boys  can  write  and  put  several  words 
together  but  the  wretched  spelling  and  still  more  wretched  writing 
give  evidence  of  such  extreme  ignorance  that  it  may  be  fairly 
called  illiteracy.  This  is  evidenced  also  by  their  poor  attempt  to 
tell  which  studies  have  helped  them  and  how.  A  Polish  boy  of 
twenty,  who  had  been  sent  to  the  Polish  School  by  his  parents  who 
themselves  can  speak  no  English  although  they  have  been  here 
seventeen  years,  says,  "Writeing  and  Reading"  have  helped  him 
because  "  If  i  can  write  and  Read  i  can  go  in  the  World  and  make  a 
ezey  living."  The  boy  had  worked  for  an  upholsterer,  but  when 
seen  by  the  investigator  had  been  idle  for  two  months.  A  similar 
case  is  that  of  an  Italian  boy  whose  father  speaks  very  little  Eng- 
lish and  his  mother  none  at  all  although  they  have  been  here  twenty 
years.  This  boy  attended  what  he  calls  a  "  Pucilc,"  evidently  meant 
for  public,  school  and  enumerates  "  Reading  Writing  Geoghy  and 
Aricits"  because  "they  made  me  get  my  School  Certifat."  The 
boy  was  one  of  a  family  of  five  children  and  seven  grandchildren 
and  the  certificate  which  gave  him  the  right  to  work  for  them  was 
indeed  a  thing  of  value.  A  poor  Polish  boy  whose  father  has  been 
insane  ten  years  and  who  has  evidently  shared  his  mother's  struggle 
to  "  bring  up  the  family,"  reached  the  fourth  grade  in  a  parochial 
school  and  writes  in  pathetic  detail  that  "  Reading  and  Retmetic" 

134 


THE    IGNORANT  CHILD 

have  helped  him  most  because  "  Reading  helps  me  find  work  by 
reading  in  paper  and  Retmetic  helps  me  count  my  hours  I  put  in 
and  count  my  Celary." 

Many  other  similar  examples  might  be  given:  A  boy  of 
seventeen  who  attended  school  seven  years  and  was  only  in  the 
second  grade  when  he  left  selects  "  Reeding,  Ritting,  and  Conting" 
because  "  I  codont  get  no  work  if  I  coudont  Reed  or  Rite  or  spell." 
Another  seventeen-year-old  boy  who  also  was  in  school  seven 
years  says  he  was  only  in  "  i  room"  grade  in  what  he  describes 
as  the  "Parofial  Scool."  He  enumerates  "reading  and  riting" 
because  when  i  am  at  home  and  have  nothing  to  do  i  read  and 
rite."  Still  another,  seventeen  years  old,  who  is  a  varnisher  in 
a  pool  table  factory,  says,  "  Reading,  writing  (because)  in  worke, 
it  helps  me." 

More  interesting,  perhaps,  are  the  statements  which  explain 
in  what  special  way  the  boy  has  used  his  studies  or  found  them 
helpful.  Thus  the  eldest  of  two  Polish  boys  who  run  their  father's 
coal  and  hack  business,  and  support  the  family  of  10,  says  briefly, 
"  Rhitmetic"  because  "  I  have  figure  Coal  Bills  and  Carriage  Trips" ; 
and  the  younger  one,  aged  seventeen,  finds  that  "Arithmetic, 
Reading  Wrighting"  were  all  helpful  "  Because  I  figure  the  Weights 
of  Coal."  An  Italian  boy  who  is  the  sole  support  of  a  family  of 
eight  and  who  is  a  machinist's  helper  finds  arithmetic  most  useful 
and  says  in  explanation  "  I  after  use  a  ruel."  One  boy  who  began 
to  attend  school  when  he  was  ten  and  went  to  work  at  thirteen  does 
not  specify  which  studies  helped  him,  but  says,  as  if  in  explana- 
tion of  all  things,  "  We  needed  the  money  to  Spend  on  Shoes."  An 
Irish  boy  of  eighteen  specifies  "Reding"  and  his  explanation  is 
"  I  am  a  Cook."  Another  boy  does  not  select  any  special  studies 
but  says,  "  I  was  driving  a  coal  wagon  and  the  lesson  learned  me  to 
give  right  change  back  and  read  the  names  and  addresses." 

It  is,  however,  a  point  of  further  interest  that  some  of  the 
boys  say  quite  definitely  that  the  school  struggle  was  not  worth 
while,  and  they  can  find  no  word  to  say  regarding  the  usefulness  of 
any  study.  Thus,  one  who  was  eighteen  years  old  says  briefly, 
"No  studies  held  me  I  dont  ned  them";  and  another,  who  is  also 
eighteen,  comments  very  plainly,  "  None  of  studies  have  helpt  any 
to  Earn  my  money."  One  boy  who  is  now  nineteen  but  who  was 

135 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

kept  in  school  until  he  was  sixteen  and  had  reached  the  sixth  grade 
says  with  like  certainty,  "There  is  Know  studies  which  have 
helped  me  (because)  I  am  a  painter."  An  Irish  boy,  eighteen 
years  old,  who  works  in  a  barber  shop,  left  school  when  he  was 
thirteen  and  writes,  "  I  done  hard  work  which  did  not  Rezure  (re- 
quire) School."  An  Italian  boy  who  is  only  fifteen  cannot  say 
that  he  has  been  helped  in  any  way  but  writes  in  explanation  "  I 
work  with  my  hand." 

There  are,  of  course,  among  these  school  statements  a  few 
written  by  boys  who  could  write  well — not  placing  the  standard 
of  writing  among  boys  higher  than  it  should  be! — but  these,  like 
the  cases  of  boys  who  come  from  comfortable  homes,  are  infre- 
quent exceptions.  Taken  as  a  whole,  the  statements  show  clearly 
that  the  majority  of  these  delinquent  children  when  they  left 
school  to  go  to  work  were  handicapped  children,  knowing  prob- 
ably how  to  read,  but  writing  with  the  greatest  difficulty,  if  at  all. 

But  the  school  statements  do  not  in  themselves  complete  the 
story  of  the  ignorant  child.  Some  account  must  be  given  of  the 
303  boys  out  of  the  584  whose  families  were  visited,  but  who  did  not 
fill  out  the  "statement."  A  considerable  number  of  these  boys 
were  away  from  home,  in  institutions,  "out  West,"  in  the  army  or 
navy,  and  in  some  cases  the  family  wished  to  conceal  from  the  boy 
the  visit  of  the  investigator  because  they  did  not  wish  to  revive  the 
memory  of  his  court  experience.  But  in  other  cases,  of  which  the 
number  is  unquestionably  larger  than  the  schedules  show,  the  boy 
was  not  able  to  read  or  write  and  did  not,  therefore,  return  the 
school  statement  at  all.  Some  account  of  these  totally  illiterate 
boys  must  be  given  in  order  to  supplement  the  testimony  that 
is  furnished  by  the  school  statements.  Far  more  ignorant  than 
the  most  ignorant  boy  who  attempted  to  scrawl  a  few  figures  or 
a  misspelled  word  on  the  schedules  is  the  boy  who  cannot  read 
or  write  at  all.  Such  a  case,  for  example,  is  that  of  the  Polish  boy 
nineteen  years  old  who  is  unable  to  read  or  write,  who  attended 
school  but  who  did  not  get  beyond  the  first  grade.  His  mother 
says  "  he  did  not  go  more  than  one  day  a  week."  A  similar  case 
is  that  of  an  Italian  boy  sixteen  years  old,  born  in  this  country, 
who  began  to  go  to  school  when  he  was  ten  "  but  did  not  go  much," 
and  who  can  neither  read  nor  write.  He  now  owns  a  paper  route 

136 


THE    IGNORANT   CHILD 

and  "  wants  to  save  his  money  to  go  to  night  school."  There  is  also 
the  case  of  a  German  boy  of  nineteen  who  cannot  read  or  write; 
another  Italian  boy  who,  when  he  was  brought  to  court  at  the  age 
of  thirteen,  had  never  been  to  school  at  all;  an  Irish  boy  of  nine- 
teen who  is  said  to  be  a  good  worker  and  "  good  to  the  family  but 
so  illiterate  that  he  can  scarcely  read  or  write."  A  Polish  boy  who 
did  not  come  to  this  country  until  he  was  thirteen,  went  to  school 
only  until  he  could  find  work.  He  is  now  seventeen  and  unable 
either  to  read  or  to  write.  A  Swedish  boy  was  scarcely  able  to  read 
or  write  when  he  was  eighteen,  but  he  has  since  been  attending 
night  school.  A  Polish  boy  of  eighteen  who  was  born  here  is 
unable  to  write.  An  Irish  boy  of  sixteen  cannot  write.  An  Irish 
boy  eighteen  years  old  is  a  carpenter  and  has  recently  been  earning 
$25  a  week,  but  he  cannot  write  at  all  and  asks  his  sister  to  write  for 
him  when  necessary.  It  seems  unnecessary  to  mention  any  other 
similar  cases,  but  the  facts  about  two  Bohemian  boys,  both  of  whom 
had  brutal  fathers,  should  perhaps  also  be  given  in  this  group.  In 
one  case  the  father  refused  to  allow  the  boy  to  attempt  to  fill  in  the 
schedule,  saying  that  the  boy  had  had  "  no  schooling."  The  boy 
had  had  a  very  poor  record  when  he  was  taken  out  of  school  at  the 
age  of  eleven  and  was  perhaps  "mentally  deficient,"  but  the  record 
showed  that  the  father  had  refused  to  allow  any  of  the  children  to 
go  to  school.  I n  the  case  of  the  other  boy,  even  when  he  lived  with 
an  aunt,  the  father  would  not  let  him  go  to  school  if  he  could  help 
it,  and  falsified  the  child's  age  certificate  to  make  him  work.  Those 
who  know  the  boy  say  that  he  probably  would  have  done  well  in 
school  if  he  had  been  allowed  to  attend. 

This  list  of  cases  has  been  given  somewhat  in  detail  in  order 
to  emphasize  the  fact  that  the  school  statements  by  no  means  tell 
the  whole  story  of  ignorance  and  illiteracy.  There  is  undoubtedly 
a  very  considerable  number  of  other  boys  whose  records  would  be 
much  the  same  if  they  could  be  obtained.  Such  illiteracy  as  is  re- 
vealed by  the  school  statements  is  unquestionably  typical  of  the 
condition  of  the  boys  who  are  brought  into  court.  It  should  be 
noted  here  that  the  machinery  for  preventing  the  illiteracy  shown 
by  the  school  statements  had  been  tardily  set  in  motion.  The 
child  labor  law  of  1903  had  been  passed  and  was  in  operation  for 

137 


THE    DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE    HOME 

the  first  time  in  the  year  1903-04  when  these  boys  were  brought 
into  court.  This  law  not  only  provided  that  children  under  four- 
teen years  of  age  could  not  be  gainfully  employed  during  school 
hours  but  that  no  child  between  the  ages  of  fourteen  and  sixteen 
could  be  so  employed  unless  he  had  first  received  an  age  and  school 
certificate  approved  by  the  superintendent  of  schools;  and  during 
this  year,  these  provisions  were  supposedly  in  force.*  The  school 
certificate  then,  as  now,  required  not  only  a  statement  regarding 
the  date  of  the  child's  birth  sworn  to  by  the  parent  or  guardian, 
but  also  a  statement  by  the  teacher  and  principal  of  the  school 
that  the  child  could  "read  and  write  legibly  simple  sentences." 
This  law  also  provides  that  "  in  the  case  of  a  child  who  cannot  read 
at  sight  and  write  legibly  simple  sentences"  a  certificate  may  be 
issued  provided  the  child  is  attending  an  evening  school  and  his 
attendance  there  is  certified  weekly.  And  it  is  further  provided 
that,  when  the  evening  schools  are  not  in  session,  "an  age  and 
school  certificate  shall  not  be  approved  for  any  child  who  can- 
not read  at  sight  and  write  legibly  simple  sentences."  This  law 
unfortunately  does  not  provide  that  the  child  must  be  able  to 
read  and  write  "in  English/'f  and  although  there  are  very  few 
cases  in  which  it  happens  that  a  child  is  able  to  read  and  write 
in  some  other  language  when  he  is  not  able  to  do  so  in  English, 
an  opportunity  of  evading  the  law  exists  since  the  child's  claim  to 
proficiency  in  a  foreign  language  is  not  easily  tested. 

It  is  significant  in  this  connection  that  of  the  281  boys  from 
whom  school  statements  were  obtained,  140  were  under  fourteen 
years  of  age  and  1 1 1  others  were  under  sixteen  when  brought  to 
court,  so  that  251,  or  nearly  nine-tenths  of  them,  came  under  the 


*  See  Illinois  Revised  Statutes,  chap.  48,  sec.  20,  for  the  law,  and  the  Fiftieth 
Annual  Report  of  the  Chicago  Board  of  Education  (1904),  pp.  43-47,  for  a  state- 
ment by  the  superintendent  of  schools  as  to  the  methods  of  enforcing  this  law. 

t  It  is  of  interest  that  the  most  recent  report  of  State  Factory  Inspector 
Davies  says,  in  discussing  the  subject  of  Prosecutions  Under  the  Child  Labor  Act, 
"if  certain  other  restrictions  were  placed  in  the  law,  it  would  greatly  add  to  the 
efficacy  of  the  measure;  for  instance,  as  the  law  now  stands  it  permits  the  employ- 
ment of  children  who  may  merely  be  able  to  read  and  write  legibly  simple  sentences 
in  any  language,  and  I  believe  that  it  should  be  amended  so  that  children  under  the 
age  of  sixteen,  who  are  unable  to  read  and  write  English  and  pass  an  otherwise 
simple  educational  test,  should  not  be  permitted  to  work."  Sixteenth  Annual  Re- 
port of  the  Factory  Inspector  of  Illinois,  1908,  p.  XVI. 

I38 


THE    IGNORANT  CHILD 

provisions  of  this  law*  and  were  not  legally  entitled  to  their  "work- 
ing papers"  unless  they  were  able  to  "  read  and  write  legibly  simple 
sentences."  Yet  of  all  the  school  statements  handed  in,  only  one, 
that  of  a  boy  who  left  school  at  twelve  and  who  says  "  I  go  to  night 
school  every  night"  contains  any  record  of  the  attendance  at 
evening  school  prescribed  for  illiterate  children  before  the  issuing 
of  the  school  certificate. 

Any  explanation  of  this  illiteracy  among  delinquent  boys 
must  fall  under  one  of  two  heads:  (i)  either  the  boy  did  not  go  to 
school,  or  (2)  he  was  so  handicapped  that  he  made  little  or  no  prog- 
ress while  there,  or  (3)  he  may  have  been  able  to  read  or  write  some 
foreign  language,  and  therefore  not  truly  illiterate.  This  last  expla- 
nation could  have  applied  to  so  few  cases  that  it  may  be  disregarded 
since  the  boy  was  urged  to  fill  out  the  statement  in  any  language. 

On  the  first  point,  irregularity  of  attendance  or  non-attend- 
ance, there  is  much  to  be  said.  The  great  majority  of  these  boys 
had  spent  their  entire  school  life  under  a  compulsory  education 
law.  In  1899  the  year  in  which  the  juvenile  court  was  established, 
a  compulsory  education  department  was  already  in  existence  in 
Chicago  and  a  law  providing  for  the  establishment  of  a  parental 
school  for  truant  boys  had  been  passed.  In  the  year  1903-04, 
along  with  the  new  child  labor  law  which  has  been  described,  a  new 
compulsory  education  law  was  being  enforced.  This  law  not  only 
extended  the  period  of  required  attendance  to  the  whole  school 
year,  but  it  made  possible  the  better  enforcement  of  the  law  by 
providing  for  the  punishment  of  parents  whose  children  were  kept 
out  of  school.  During  this  year,  therefore,  the  compulsory  educa- 
tion department  sent  1060  warnings  to  parents  and  prosecuted  307 

*  The  following  table  showing  the  ages  at  which  these  boys  were  brought  into 
court  is  of  interest: 


Age 

Q.  . 

Number  of  boys 

i 

IO  

.::  :.:  .3 

II  

.    27 

12  

.    35 

13  .. 

.    57 

14  

66 

15  

.   45 

16  

.  .  .  ;  2O 

18  

I 

Total.. 

.    287 

139 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 

who  did  not  comply.*  The  parent  who  kept  a  child  out  of  school 
to  deliver  washings,  to  "mind  baby,"  or  to  "keep  house  while 
mother  was  away  working,"  could  be  punished  by  fine  and  impris- 
onment if  the  offense  were  continued. 

Just  how  far  failure  to  attend  school  is  an  explanation  of 
illiteracy  it  is  not  possible  to  say;  there  is  no  question,  how- 
ever, of  there  being  a  close  connection  not  merely  between 
truancy  and  illiteracy  but  between  truancy  and  delinquency.  And 
while  only  64  of  the  delinquent  boys  who  came  into  court  during 
the  year  1903-04  were  charged  with  truancy  as  well  as  with  some 
other  delinquent  offense,f  the  detailed  histories  of  the  cases  kept 
on  file  in  the  court  records  show  that  1 17  other  delinquent  boys 
"would  not  go  to  school"  although  not  charged  specifically  with 
truancy.  That  is,  in  a  very  large  number  of  cases  the  boy's 
parent  or  guardian  or  the  probation  officer  or  some  one  familiar 
with  his  habits  knew  that  he  had  been  staying  away  from  school 
although  he  had  escaped  being  brought  to  court  for  this  offense. 
The  following  table  shows  for  1903-04  and  for  another  and  more 
recent  year,  1907-08,^  the  ages  of  all  the  delinquent  boys  who 
would  not  go  to  school,  whether  they  were  charged  with  tru- 
ancy in  the  court  records  or  not. 

This  table  shows  that  in  1903-04,  181  boys,  and  in  1907-08, 
1 20  boys  "would  not  go  to  school."  It  should  be  noticed,  how- 
ever, that  the  table  includes  boys  of  all  ages  from  seven  to  sixteen, 
although  the  compulsory  school  law  requires  attendance  after  the 
age  of  fourteen  only  when  the  child  is  not  working,  and  it  is  well 
known  that  no  practicable  method  of  enforcing  this  law  has  yet 
been  found.  But  for  the  boy  who  is  supposed  to  be  attending 
school,  irregular  attendance  is  as  demoralizing  above  the  age  at 
which  attendance  can  be  enforced  as  for  the  one  below  it.  Looking, 
however,  only  at  the  children  under  fourteen,  namely,  children  of 
the  compulsory  school  age,  it  appears  that  even  these  incomplete 
data  show  that  in  1903-04,  166  boys  under  fourteen,  34  per  cent  of  all 

*  See  the  Fiftieth  Annual  Report  of  the  Chicago  Board  of  Education  (1904). 
Report  of  the  Compulsory  Education  Department,  p.  41. 

t  Fifty-eight  other  boys  brought  in  during  this  year  as  delinquent  had  been 
in  before  as  truants. 

J  This  is  the  most  recent  year  that  could  be  selected,  since  the  records  for 
1908-09  were  not  complete  at  the  time  of  writing. 

140 


THE    IGNORANT  CHILD 

the  delinquent  boys  of  this  age  brought  to  court  during  this  year,* 
and  in  1907-08,  87  boys  under  fourteen,  one-fourth  of  the  total 
number  under  this  age  brought  to  court  during  the  year,  were  in 
need  of  discipline  for  persistently  staying  out  of  school. 

TABLE   27.  —  DELINQUENT  BOYS  WHO  "  WOULD  NOT  GO  TO  SCHOOL" 
DURING   THE   YEARS    1903-1904   AND    1907-1908.  —  BY   AGEa 

NUMBER  OF  BOYS 

1907-1908 
i 
3 


Age 
7  

1903-1904 

2 

8  

4 

18 

10  

31 

n  

31 

12  

43 

13  .  . 

37 

14  

6 

15.  . 

6 

,6  

i 

No  reoort  . 

2 

17 

12 

4 

120 

a  It  is  obviously  a  matter  of  some  difficulty  to  compile  such  a  table,  since  in 
many  cases  the  evidence  indicates  a  prolonged  absence  from  school  although  the 
fact  is  not  specifically  mentioned.  Such  cases,  however,  were  never  counted  unless 
the  evidence  seemed  unmistakable.  Thus,  three  boys  who  could  neither  read  nor 
write  were  not  counted  because  although  they  were  also  probably  truant,  there  is 
no  evidence  other  than  the  fact  of  their  illiteracy.  On  the  other  hand,  nine  boys 
who  had  been  staying  away  from  home  several  weeks  at  a  time  and  unquestionably 
staying  away  from  school,  were  also  included  in  the  list  although  not  called  truant, 
for  the  record  of  their  adventures  showed  that  they  had  been  off  on  a  prolonged 
"larking"  expedition  with  no  possible  chance  to  go  to  school. 

b  Of  these  181  boys,  three  were  kept  at  home  by  parents  to  carry  washings 
and  do  similar  "chores,"  one  had  never  been  in  school,  and  one  had  "always  been 
a  truant." 

There  were,  then,  in  1907-08,  at  least  1  16  of  the  delinquent 
boys  under  sixteen  and  87  under  fourteen,  or  one-fourth  of  the 
total  number  under  fourteen  brought  to  court  during  this  year, 
who  were  staying  away  from  school.  This  percentage  for  1907-08 
is  smaller  than  that  for  1903-04;  that  is,  25  instead  of  34  per  cent. 
Some  of  the  1903-04  boys,  however,  were  charged  with  truancy, 
not  when  they  were  first  brought  to  court  but  when  they  were  re- 
turned later  on  a  new  charge.  Similarly,  many  of  these  1907-08 
boys  will  be  returned  to  court  again,  and  if  their  entire  histories 
could  be  read  four  years  from  this  time,  there  is  every  reason  to 
believe  that  a  very  considerable  number  of  them  would  later  be 

*  See  Table  2,  p.  24. 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

described  as  "refusing  to  go  to  school."  Either  percentage,  how- 
ever, is  sufficiently  large  to  show  a  striking  connection  between 
truancy  and  delinquency  among  boys.  It  is  significant  that  in  the 
more  recent  year  there  is  a  large  number  of  truant  boys  at  the  ages 
of  fourteen,  fifteen,  and  sixteen.  Attention  was  called  in  an  early 
part  of  this  chapter  to  the  fact  that  the  great  majority  of  boys  who 
become  wards  of  the  court  leave  school  and  go  to  work  when  they 
are  fourteen;  that  they  are  often  out  of  work  as  well  as  out  of 
school;  and  that  they  are  given  special  opportunities,  as  it  were, 
to  become  delinquent. 

There  is,  however,  as  has  been  said,  a  possible  explanation  for 
illiteracy  other  than  a  failure  to  comply  with  the  compulsory  edu- 
cation law.  The  boy  may  have  been  handicapped  by  a  poor  mind 
or  a  poor  body  which  no  amount  of  patient  attendance  at  school 
could  cure.  There  are  the  children  who  are  the  victims  of  St. 
Vitus'  dance;  the  epileptics;  the  boys  described  as  mentally  de- 
ficient, or  weak-minded;  and  finally,  the  poor  backward  boys  de- 
scribed as  "not  very  bright"  or  "dull  and  slow,"  such  as  a  Dutch 
boy  who  was  never  able  to  get  out  of  the  kindergarten  and  is  said 
by  his  mother  to  be  "weak  in  the  head."  This  boy  is  now  sixteen 
and  has  tried  to  work  with  a  construction  company,  but  his  mother 
thinks  he  will  never  be  able  to  work  satisfactorily.  Or  there  is  the 
case  of  a  German  boy  who  never  got  beyond  second  grade  at 
school  and  was  thought  mentally  deficient.  He  has  not  been  suc- 
cessful in  work  either,  and  the  probation  officer  thinks  he  will  always 
be  a  "  half-witted  tramp. ' '  Many  examples  of  such  cases  are  cited 
in  the  list  given  at  the  end  of  this  chapter,*  which  also  shows  the 
limitations  under  which  the  court  labored  in  regard  to  the  treat- 
ment of  these  children.  As  there  is  no  institution  in  the  state  in 
which  epileptic  children  can  be  cared  for  and  only  one  institution, 
and  that  crowded,  for  feeble-minded  children,  the  judge  could  make 
use  only  of  those  institutions  provided  for  normal  children. f 

In  turning  from  the  delinquent  boy  to  the  delinquent  girl, 
data  bearing  upon  the  question  of  school  status  were  more  difficult 
to  obtain.  It  will  be  recalled  that  family  schedules  were  secured 
only  for  those  girls  who  were  in  the  state  training  school  in  the 
summer  of  1908,  and  since  many  of  these  girls  had  been  in  Geneva 

*  See  p.  147.  f  See  Judge  Pinckney's  testimony,  Appendix  II,  pp.  243-244. 

142 


THE   IGNORANT  CHILD 


for  a  considerable  period  of  time,  school  statements  from  them 
similar  to  those  obtained  from  the  boys  would  have  had  little  value 
as  their  content  would  have  been  materially  modified  by  the  train- 
ing already  given  through  the  school  at  Geneva.  It  was  found, 
however,  that  the  Geneva  records  contained  some  interesting  in- 
formation regarding  the  school  status  of  the  girls  at  the  time 
when  they  became  wards  of  the  school.  These  data  were  state- 
ments obtained  from  every  girl  at  the  time  she  was  committed  to 
the  institution  regarding  the  amount  of  schooling  she  had  had  or 
the  last  grade  she  had  attended  before  she  came  to  Geneva.  The 
data  presented  in  Table  28  were  obtained  from  a  study  of  these 
records  for  the  five  years  from  July  i,  1904,  to  July  i,  1909,  and 
show  the  ages  of  705  delinquent  girls  when  they  entered  the  school, 
together  with  the  grades  they  had  last  attended. 

TABLE    28. — LAST    GRADE    ATTENDED    BY    705    DELINQUENT    GIRLS 

BEFORE   THEIR   COMMITMENT  TO   GENEVA,    AND   AGE 

AT  TIME   OF   COMMITMENT 


Never 

GRA 

DE 

T«<«7 

Per 

Age 

School 

nt 

and 

3rd 

,{tb 

5tb 

6tb 

Tib 

Sib 

High 

School 

/  ota  I 

Cent 

8  or  undera.  .  . 

i 

i 

i 

3 

.4 

Q  .  . 

2 

2 

4 

.6 

10  

8 

?, 

4 

i 

7, 

17 

2-4 

ii  

3 

5 

1  1 

2 

I 

22 

3-' 

12  

i 

6 

0 

Q 

10 

Q 

5 

49 

6q 

13  

7 

Q 

13 

12 

20 

6 

3 

i 

71 

10.  1 

14  

3 

8 

10 

iq 

18 

IS 

16 

8 

2 

2 

101 

14.3 

15  

5 

6 

16 

31 

31 

31 

24 

IS 

I  1 

I 

171 

24.3 

16  

A 

a 

IQ 

23 

25 

23 

12 

I  I 

2 

122 

17.3 

17  or  over  

6 

4 

2 

18 

23 

26 

30 

2O 

12 

4 

145 

2O.6 

Total  

20 

43 

SQ 

i?6 

I2O 

120 

104 

58 

37 

Q 

705 

IOO.O 

Per  cent  

2.8 

6.1 

8-4 

17.9 

17.0 

l8-3 

14.8 

8.2 

5-2 

>-3 

IOO.O 

a  The  one  girl  under  eight,  who  was  six  years  old,  was  also  the  one  in  this 
group  who  had  never  been  in  school.     She  is  therefore  not  counted. 

143 

sV 
•tf 


THE    DELINQUENT   CHILD   AND   THE    HOME 

This  table  does  not  show  as  did  Table  26  (page  1 29)  for  boys, 
the  age  at  which  the  girl  left  school.  In  a  number  of  cases  the  girl 
was  in  fact  attending  school  at  the  time  of  her  commitment,  but 
as  539  girls  out  of  the  705  (76.5  percent)  were  fourteen  or  over,  and  so 
beyond  the  compulsory  school  age,  some  had  left  school  altogether; 
a  few  as  the  table  indicates  had  never  been  to  school.  The  table, 
therefore,  does  not  indicate  the  divergence  from  what  would  be  the 
normal  rate  of  progress  in  school ;  for  some  of  the  sixteen-year-old 
girls  may  have  left  school  at  the  age  of  ten  or  twelve.  It  does, 
however,  make  possible  a  comparison  with  what  might  be  called  the 
degree  of  advancement  contemplated  by  the  compulsory  school  law 
'and  that  actually  attained  by  these  girls.  That  is,  in  contrast  to 
Table  26  in  which  the  number  of  boys  below  the  line  had  failed  to 
make  normal  progress  in  school,  Table  28  shows  below  the  line,  the 
girls  who  at  the  time  when  they  entered  Geneva  were  below  the 
standard  for  girls  of  their  age  who  had  been  kept  in  school.  The 
normal  sixteen-year-old  girl  should  be  in  the  high  school,  and  the  fact 
that  1 20  girls  of  this  age  had,  according  to  the  table,  never  reached 
the  high  school  shows  that  they  were  below  the  normal  standard 
whether  they  were  still  in  school  or  not.  Out  of  705  girls  who  re-/ 
ported  their  school  grade,  635,  or  90  per  cent  of  the  whole  number,  y 
were  below  the  black  line.  Here,  again,  the  table  gives  no  ade-  \ 
quate  idea  of  the  extreme  cases  which  are  found.  Twenty  of  these 
girls,  eighteen  of  them  over  fourteen,  had  never  been  in  school 
at  all ;  43  other  girls,  whose  ages  ranged  from  eight  to  seventeen, 
claimed  that  they  had  been  to  school  but  had  not  got  out  of  the  ; 
first  grade. 

Although  the  delinquent  girl  seems  then  to  be  more  illiterate 
than  the  delinquent  boy,  the  explanation  of  this  illiteracy  is  not  on 
the  face  of  it  so  evident.  It  was  pointed  out  that  there  were  two 
primary  causes  of  backwardness  among  the  boys:  (i)  a  large  num- 
ber of  them  were  truants,  who  had  been  to  school  very  irregularly, 
and  (2)  many  of  them  were  so  handicapped  physically  or  mentally 
that  they  made  little  progress  in  school  even  if  they  attended  regu- 
larly. With  regard  to  the  first  point  it  appears  that  the  number 
of  truant  girls  is  insignificant  compared  with  the  number  of  truant 
boys.  In  1909-10,  the  superintendent  of  compulsory  education 

144 


THE    IGNORANT   CHILD 

reported  3482  truant  boys  and  only  132  truant  girls.*  It  is  prob- 
ably true,  however,  that  truancy  is  less  easily  detected  among 
girls  than  among  boys,  since  the  latter  are  more  conspicuously  dis- 
orderly when  absent  from  school.  Certainly  girls  are  kept  at  home 
much  more  frequently  than  boys  to  help  with  the  housework  and 
to  care  for  the  younger  children,  and,  even  if  not  officially  desig- 
nated "  truants,"  their  attendance  at  school  is  none  the  less  irreg- 
ular and  uncertain,  and,  in  turn,  unprofitable. 

With  regard  to  the  second  reason  for  lack  of  progress  at 
school,  the  physical  or  mental  handicap,  little  comment  is  necessary 
after  a  reading  of  the  girls'  "family  paragraphs"  to  which  reference 
has  already  been  so  frequently  made.  As  with  the  boys,  there  is' 
evidence  in  a  considerable  number  of  cases  of  subnormal  develop- 
ment; and  the  presence  at  Geneva  of  feeble-minded  or  mentally 
deficient  girls  who  were  committed  to  the  institution  because  of 
immorality  shows  a  need  for  a  better  system  of  protecting  these 
unfortunate  children.  It  should  also  be  added  that  not  only 
was  a  larger  proportion  of  poor  homes  found  among  the  delinquent 
girls  than  among  the  boys,  but  a  larger  number  of  these  were  homes 
in  which  there  was  not  only  poverty  but  degradation,  and  from 
such  homes  a  greater  degree  of  illiteracy  must  be  expected. 

In  attempting  to  summarize  the  conclusions  from  such  data 
as  have  been  presented  regarding  the  school  status  of  these  boys 
and  girls,  it  may  be  said  briefly  that  in  the  great  majority  of 
cases  the  delinquent  child  is  also  an  ignorant  child,  and  in  a  large 
number  of  cases  an  illiterate  child.  This  is  obviously  due  in 
part  to  the  fact  that  many  of  these  children  enter  school  late  and 
leave  when  they  are  still  very  young,  some  of  them  before  they 
have  reached  the  age  of  fourteen  and  are  legally  entitled  to  their 
working  papers,  and  nearly  all  the  others  as  soon  as  they  reach 
this  age.  Their  illiteracy  is  explained  in  part  by  the  fact  that 
during  the  short  period  when  they  are  supposedly  attending  school, 

*  The  number  of  truant  boys  has  been  correspondingly  in  excess  of  the  num- 
ber of  truant  girls  in  other  years.  In  1908-09,  for  example,  there  were  2942  boy 
truants  and  only  112  girls;  in  1907-08  there  were  3294  boys  and  119  girls;  in  1906-07, 
3004  boys  and  266  girls.  It  is  of  interest  that  a  statement  by  the  superintendent 
of  compulsory  education  during  the  last  year,  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  though 
conditions  were  normal  among  boys,  there  had  been  an  increase  in  truancy  among 
girls  and  that  the  records  of  the  juvenile  court  showed  an  increase  of  delinquency 
among  girls  during  the  same  time. 

145 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

they  attend  very  irregularly,  and  in  part  by  the  fact  that  while  they 
are  in  school  they  are  so  handicapped  mentally  or  physically  that 
they  make  little  progress. 

That  the  schools  are  trying  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  delinquent 
child  and  to  remove  such  causes  of  delinquency  as  illiteracy  and 
truancy  is  evidenced  in  many  ways:  by  constant  improvement  in 
the  methods  of  enforcing  the  compulsory  education  and  the  child 
labor  laws;  by  the  establishment  of  ungraded  classes  or  subnormal 
rooms,  to  care  more  satisfactorily  for  the  dull  or  backward  child; 
by  the  vacation  school,  which  provides  a  healthy  substitute  for 
the  street  in  the  summer;  and  finally  by  the  manual  training  cen- 
ters, which  are  referred  to  so  touchingly  in  the  school  statements 
of  those  boys  who  said  that  the  "studies  that  helped  them  most" 
were,  as  they  expressed  it,  "work  with  hands."  Even  the  chil- 
dren can  connect  instruction  in  these  centers  quite  definitely  with 
that  lifelong  work  with  the  hands  which  is  sure  to  be  their  portion. 
And  finally,  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  these  illiterate  children 
are  also,  many  of  them,  children  of  illiterate  and  degraded  parents, 
and  that  upon  the  home,  rather  than  upon  the  school  and  the  court, 
must  be  placed  the  true  responsibility  for  the  ignorant  child. 


146 


THE    IGNORANT  CHILD 

NOTE  TO  CHAPTER  VIII 
MENTALLY  DEFECTIVE  BOYS  BROUGHT  TO  COURT  AS  DELINQUENT 

No  list  which  was  at  all  complete  could  be  compiled  of  the  delin- 
quent boys  who  were  also  subnormal,  or  mentally  defective.  In  fact  it  is 
now  recognized  that  the  question  of  a  child's  mental  condition  can  in  many 
cases  be  determined  only  after  the  child  has  been  carefully  examined  by 
an  expert.  It  has  seemed  worth  while,  however,  to  present  the  following 
43  cases  of  boys  who  were  obviously  "peculiar"  or  "queer"  or  "weak  in 
the  head"  or  "feeble-minded"  and  were  so  described  by  parent  or  proba- 
tion officer.  The  statement  of  the  disposition  made  of  their  cases  indicates 
the  more  or  less  accidental  and  haphazard  method  of  treatment  inevit- 
able when  the  resources  of  the  court  are  limited  and  when  there  is  lacking 
even  the  machinery  for  discovering  the  degree  to  which  the  child's  intelli- 
gence differs  from  the  normal  intelligence,  and  the  bearing  of  that  differ- 
ence upon  his  treatment.  The  list  is  given  in  this  form  rather  than  in  the 
form  of  a  tabular  statement  because  the  latter  would  suggest  completeness 
and  exactness  in  a  way  that  would  be  distinctly  misleading. 

(1)  Eleven-year-old  German  boy  in  court  three  times;  put  on  pro- 
bation the  first  time,  then  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School,  and  later 
placed  on  probation  again. 

(2)  Fourteen-year-old  German  boy  in  court  once;   put  on  proba- 
tion. 

(3)  Fifteen-year-old  German  boy  in  court  twice;  sent  to  the  John 
Worthy  School  both  times. 

(4)  Swedish  boy  in  court  three  times;   sent  to  the  John  Worthy 
School  the  first  time,  then  placed  on  probation,  and  later  sent  to  the  John 
Worthy  School. 

(5)  Eleven-year-old  German  boy  in  court  twice;  sent  to  the  John 
Worthy  School  both  times. 

(6)  Eleven-year-old  Canadian  boy  in  court  twice;  put  on  proba- 
tion the  first  time;  then  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School. 

(7)  Ten-year-old  English-American  boy  in  court  once;  sent  to  the 
John  Worthy  School. 

(8)  Ten-year-old  German  boy  in  court  twice;  put  on  probation  the 
first  time;  then  sent  to  the  Chicago  Parental  School. 

(9)  Fourteen-year-old  Irish  boy  in  court  once;   put  on  probation. 

(10)  Thirteen-year-old  German  boy  in  court  four  times;   put  on 
probation  the  first  two  times;  then  sent  to  the  Chicago  Parental  School  the 
last  two  times. 

147 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

(11)  Boy,  nationality  unknown,  an  epileptic,  in  court  once;   put 
on  probation. 

(12)  Thirteen-year-old  Italian  boy,  in  court  two  times;  put  on  pro- 
bation; then  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School. 

(13)  Twelve-year-old  Polish  boy  in  court  three  times;  put  on  pro- 
bation; then  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School,  and  later  sent  to  St.  Charles. 

(14)  Thirteen-year-old  American  boy,  in  court  twice;  put  on  pro- 
bation; then  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School. 

(15)  Fourteen-year-old  German  boy,  no  record. 

(16)  Thirteen-year-old  German  boy,  in  court  three  times;  paroled 
the  first  two  times;  then  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School. 

(17)  Thirteen-year-old  German  boy,  in  court  once;    sent  to  the 
John  Worthy  School. 

(18)  Twelve-year-old  Dutch  boy,  in  court  once;  sent  to  Glenwood. 

(19)  Fourteen-year-old  Irish  boy,  in  court  once;  placed  on  proba- 
tion. 

(20)  Twelve-year-old  Irish  boy,  in  court  three  times;  sent  to  John 
Worthy  School  the  first  two  times,  then  placed  on  probation. 

(21)  Eleven-year-old  Irish  boy,  in  court  three  times;  sent  to  John 
Worthy  School,  then  fined,  and  later  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School. 

(22)  Twelve-year-old  Polish  boy,  in  court  four  times;   was  fined, 
then  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School  the  last  three  times. 

(23)  Eleven-year-old  American  boy  in  court  once;  placed  on  pro- 
bation. 

(24)  Fourteen-year-old  Polish  boy,  in  court  once;    sent  to  John 
Worthy  School. 

(25)  Fourteen-year-old  American  boy,  in  court  three  times;  was 
fined,  then  sent  to  Glenwood,  and  later  sent  to  St.  Charles. 

(26)  Ten-year-old  Bohemian  boy,  in  court  three  times;  placed  on 
probation  each  time. 

(27)  Ten-year-old  Polish  boy,  in  court  four  times;  placed  on  pro- 
bation each  time. 

(28)  Sixteen-year-old  Irish  boy,  in  court  twice;   sent  to  the  John 
Worthy  School  both  times. 

(29)  Fifteen-year-old  Irish  boy,  in  court  twice;   placed  on  proba- 
tion each  time. 

(30)  Fourteen-year-old  Swedish  boy,  in  court  twice;   sent  to  the 
John  Worthy  School;  then  placed  on  probation. 

(31)  Fourteen-year-old  German  boy,  in  court  four  times;  sent  to 
John  Worthy  School  each  time. 

(32)  Fourteen-year-old  German  boy,  in  court  four  times;  sent  to 

148 


THE    IGNORANT  CHILD 

John  Worthy  School,  then  fined,  later  placed  on  probation,  and  then 
sent  to  Dunning. 

(33)  Fifteen-year-old  Irish  boy,  in  court  twice;  placed  on  proba- 
tion; then  sent  to  the  Bridewell. 

(34)  Fourteen-year-old  Italian  boy,  in  court  three  times;  sent  to 
the  John  Worthy  School  the  first  two  times,  then  sent  to  the  penitentiary. 

(35)  Fourteen-year-old  Irish  boy,  in  court  three  times;  placed  on 
probation,  then  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School,  later  sent  to  St.  Charles. 

(36)  Fourteen-year-old  boy,  nationality  unknown,  in  court  once; 
placed  on  probation. 

(37)  Twelve-year-old  Irish  boy,  in  court  four  times;  placed  on  pro- 
bation, then  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School,  again  placed  on  probation, 
and  later  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School. 

(38)  Fourteen-year-old  Irish  boy,  in  court  five  times;   placed  on 
probation,  sent  to  John  Worthy  School,  placed  on  probation,  sent  to  John 
Worthy  School,  and  then  sent  to  Pontiac. 

(39)  Eleven-year-old  German  boy,  in  court  four  times;  placed  on 
probation,  sent  to  John  Worthy  School,  again  placed  on  probation,  and 
then  sent  to  John  Worthy  School. 

(40)  Fifteen-year-old  German  boy,  in  court  once;  placed  on  proba- 
tion. 

(41)  Twelve-year-old  Polish  boy,  in  court  three  times;    sent  to 
Chicago  Parental  School,  then  to  John  Worthy  School,  and  later  placed 
on  probation. 

(42)  Eleven-year-old  colored  boy,  in  court  once;  placed  on  proba- 
tion. 

(43)  Fifteen-year-old  boy,  nationality  unknown,  in  court  twice; 
both  times  was  placed  on  probation. 


149 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  CHILD  WITHOUT  PLAY:    THE   PROBLEM 
OF    NEIGHBORHOOD   NEGLECT 

IT  became  clear,  as  a  result  of  the  analysis  of  the  economic 
status  of  the  "delinquent  family,"  that  the  great  majority  of 
delinquent  children,  boys  and  girls  alike,  came  from  homes  of 
poverty.  In  homes  of  this  class  children  are  given  fewer  facilities 
for  recreation  than  are  the  children  of  the  well-to-do,  and  they  are, 
therefore,  more  subject  to  neighborhood  influences.  For  this  reason 
it  seemed  important  to  ascertain  from  what  districts  of  the  city  the 
delinquent  children  had  come,  in  order  to  trace  any  possible  con- 
nection that  might  exist  between  neighborhood  conditions  and  the 
wrongdoing  of  the  boys  and  girls.  The  one  simple  and  direct 
method  of  determining  how  far  any  special  neighborhood  might  be 
"feeding"  the  court  was  to  locate  quite  accurately,  by  blocks, 
the  homes  of  all  the  children  brought  into  court  as  delinquent 
during  the  first  ten  years  of  its  existence.  In  attempting  to  do 
this  a  map  of  the  entire  city  proved  so  unwieldy  that  it  was  thought 
best  to  exclude  the  wide  out-lying  districts,  which  are  so  sparsely 
populated  that  few  children  have  come  from  them.  The  first,  or 
"  delinquency,"  map  shows,  therefore,  the  location  of  the  homes  of 
all  the  delinquent  children  who  became  wards  of  the  court  from 
1899  to  1909,  except  the  few  from  the  very  remote  parts  of  the  city. 
A  study  of  this  map  makes  possible  several  conclusions  with 
regard  to  "delinquent  neighborhoods."  It  becomes  clear,  in  the 
first  place,  that  the  region  from  which  the  children  of  the  court 
chiefly  come  is  the  densely  populated  West  Side,  and  that  the 
most  conspicuous  centers  of  delinquency  in  this  section  have 
been  the  congested  wards  which  lie  along  the  river  and  the 
canals.  It  should  be  explained  that  the  West  Side  is  the  most 
densely  populated  section  of  the  city — a  large  tenement  and 

150 


THE   CHILD   WITHOUT   PLAY 


lodging-house  district  lying  between  the  two  branches  of  the  river 
and  between  wide  and  unsightly  stretches  of  railroad  tracks,  and 
enclosed  by  a  dense,  semicircular  belt-line  of  manufacturing  and 
commercial  plants. 

The  condition  of  these  West  Side  wards  will,  however,  be 
better  understood  after  a  study  of  the  "congestion"  map  on  the 
following  page,  which  shows  the  relative  density  of  population  in 
the  different  wards  as  indicated  by  the  population  statistics  from  the 
Thirteenth  Census.*  These  statistics  show  that  for  the  entire  city 
the  average  population  per  acre  was  19.7.  Six  of  the  West  Side 
wards,  however,  had  more  than  70  people  per  acre,f  and,  as  one  would 
expect,  the  largest  numbers  of  delinquent  children  are  found  in  the 
areas  of  greatest  crowding.  The  Seventeenth  Ward,  a  crowded 
Italian  and  Polish  district,  has  a  density  of  97.36  per  acre;  the 
Nineteenth  Ward,  the  crowded  immigrant  section  in  which  Hull- 

*  Thirteenth  Census  of  the  United  States,  1910.  Bulletin,  Population: 
Illinois,  p.  1 1. 

t  The  following  table  will  be  of  interest  in  this  connection.  It  should  be  ex- 
plained that  this  table  together  with  the  congestion  map  and  much  of  the  discussion 
relating  to  conditions  of  the  West  Side  wards  appeared  in  one  of  a  series  of  articles 
on  housing  conditions  in  Chicago.  See  The  West  Side  Revisited.  American 
Journal  of  Sociology,  XVII,  pp.  i  ff. 


[RELATIVE  DENSITY  IN  WARDS  HAVING  50  OR  MORE  PEOPLE  PER  ACRE 

Ward  Division  of  City 


Average  Number  of 
People  per  Acre 


97.36 
90.66 
81.52 
80.79 

77-'4 
70.00 
55-40 
53-37 
53-50 
51.48 
5'-37 


Seventeenth 

Nineteenth 

Sixteenth 

Tenth 

Twentieth 

Ninth 

Twenty-third 

Fifteenth 

Second 

Eleventh 

Twenty-second 


West  Side 
West  Side 
West  Side 
West  Side 
West  Side 
West  Side 
North  Side 
West  Side 
South  Side 
South  Side 
North  Side 


Itrshould  be  made  clear  that  the  area  of  the  wards  from  which  the  statistics 
for  average  population  per  acre  were  computed,  was  in  every  case  the  gross  area, 
including  the  streets  and  alleys.  If  the  net  area  were  taken,  the  true  density  would 
be  found  to  be  much  greater.  In  1901  the  net  area  was  computed  for  the  44  blocks 
in  the  district  east  of  Hull-House  (Ninth  and  Nineteenth  wards)  and  the  10  blocks 
in  the  Sixteenth  Ward,  and  it  was  found  that  one  block  contained  457  people  to  the 
acre,  another  412,  seven  others  between  300  and  400.  A  recent  recanvass  showed 
that  there  had  been  little  or  no  change  in  the  population  of  this  area  during  the 
last  decade. 


MAP  OF  CHICAGO 

Showing  density  of  Population 
by  Wards 

Wards  having 

Less  than  30  people  per  acre 
30  people  per  acre  and  less  than  40 
40  per  acre  and  less  than  50 
50  per  acre  and  less  than  60 
70  people  per  acre  or  more 


152 


THE    CHILD   WITHOUT    PLAY 

House  is  situated,  has  90.66  per  acre;  the  Sixteenth  Ward,  a 
Polish  neighborhood,  has  a  population  averaging  81.52  per  acre; 
and  the  Ninth  and  Tenth  Wards,  which  include  the  "Ghetto"  and 
the  poor  district  about  the  lumber  yards,  have  a  density  of  80.79 
and  70  per  acre.  These  are,  with  a  single  exception,  the  West 
Side  wards  that  contain  the  largest  numbers  of  delinquent  chil- 
dren. The  single  exception  to  this  seeming  relation  between 
delinquency  and  congestion  on  the  West  Side  is  the  Fourteenth 
Ward,  which  contains  the  Negro  quarter  of  the  northwest  side. 
Like  the  other  large  Negro  districts  of  the  city,  this  is  not  a  district 
characterized  by  overcrowding,  but  it  has  all  the  other  features  of 
poor  and  neglected  neighborhoods.  In  no  wards  are  there  found 
greater  dilapidation  and  poorer  sanitary  conditions  within  the 
homes  than  in  the  wards  where  the  houses  are  rented  to  Negro 
tenants.  Moreover,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  in  Chicago  as  in 
many  other  cities  the  Negro  quarters  are  located  in  sections  of  the 
city  which  have  been  relinquished  by  the  white  population  as  un- 
desirable residence  sections. 

While  the  West  Side  furnished  the  largest  quota  of  delin- 
quents, there  are,  of  course,  other  centers  of  delinquency  across  the 
river.  These  are  chiefly  the  Italian  quarter  of  the  Twenty-second 
Ward  on  the  North  Side;  the  First  and  Second  Wards  which 
together  include  the  district  of  segregated  vice  and  a  portion  of  the 
so-called  "black  belt"  of  the  South  Side;  and  such  distinct  in- 
dustrial communities  as  the  districts  near  the  steel  mills  of  South 
Chicago  and  near  the  stockyards.* 

Attention  has  already  been  called  to  the  fact  that  offenses 
against  railroad  companies  bring  a  considerable  number  of  boys 
into  court  each  year;  and  such  offenses  take  on  new  significance 
after  a  study  of  the  first,  or  "delinquency,"  map,  which  shows 
how  many  "delinquent  homes"  are  near  the  railroad  tracks.  The 
temptation  that  the  tracks  offer  to  the  boy  has  already  been  ex- 
plained. Not  only  grain  for  the  chickens  and  coal  are  to  be  found 
in  the  "empties"  and  along  the  tracks,  but  pieces  of  iron  and  wire, 
which  may  be  sold  as  "junk"  and  which  mean,  therefore,  the  price 
of  an  afternoon  at  the  theater  or  some  other  longed-for  treat.  The 
tracks  also  offer  to  the  more  daring  the  chance  for  a  bonfire  or  for 

*  South  Chicago,  unfortunately,  does  not  appear  on  the  "delinquency"  map. 

153 


THE   DELINQUENT   CHILD   AND   THE   HOME 

"flipping"  trains,  an  almost  irresistible  temptation  in  a  crowded 
neighborhood  where  there  is  so  little  provision  for  sports  or  rec- 
reation. 

It  is,  of  course,  especially  characteristic  of  the  poor  and  con- 
gested wards  of  the  city  that  they  have  few  parks  or  playgrounds; 
and  in  no  other  group  of  homes  are  the  private  facilities  for  recrea- 
tion so  slight  as  in  these  crowded  tenement  quarters.  To  test  the 
extent  to  which  the  delinquent  child  was  also  a  "child  without 
play,"  a  count  was  made  of  the  number  of  boys  in  the  special  year 
1903-04  who  did  not  live  within  accessible  distance,  that  is,  within 
half  a  mile,*  of  any  public  place  of  recreation.  The  homes  of 
832  of  these  boys  were  locatedf  and  it  was  found  that  only  449  of 
them,  or  54  per  cent  of  the  total  number,  had  opportunities  for 
recreation  or  play.  In  this  year  (1903-04)  eight  wards  of  the  city 
(the  2nd,  4th,  8th,  gth,  loth,  i  ith,  22nd,  24th)  had  no  park  area; 
of  these  the  Eighth  is  South  Chicago,  the  Second  is  in  the  so- 
called  "black  belt"  and  is  still  without  a  park,  and  the  others  are 
all  river  wards. 

The  movement  in  Chicago  towards  the  establishment  of 
parks  which  are  real  recreation  centers  began  with  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  special  park  commission  in  1899,  but  it  was  not  until  the 
following  year  that  the  first  appropriations  from  the  general  cor- 
porate funds  of  the  city  were  made  for  its  work.  The  children  who 
were  brought  into  the  court  during  the  early  years  of  its  history 
were,  therefore,  only  too  certainly  children  who  had  grown  up 
without  any  suitable  provision  for  play. 

When  the  juvenile  court  was  established  in  1899,  there  were 
besides  the  six  chief  parks,  some  15  small  parks,  squares,  and 
triangles;  these  were  for  the  most  part,  however,  small  green 
oases,  with  a  few  shaded  benches,  valuable  indeed,  but  furnishing 

*  This  distance  was  somewhat  arbitrarily  selected  and  used  for  all  parks  and 
playgrounds  that  were  in  existence  in  1904.  According  to  the  superintendent  of 
playgrounds  of  the  Special  Park  Commission:  "The  percentage  of  attendance  ac- 
cording to  distances  from  each  ground  shows  that  71  per  cent  of  those  who  use  the 
play  centers  live  within  a  radius  of  one-quarter  mile  and  89.5  per  cent  live  within  a 
radius  of  a  half-mile.  It  has  been  proved  that  few  children  will  walk  more  than  a 
half-mile  to  a  playground.  This  means  that  play  centers  should  be  established 
every  square  mile  in  populous  districts."  Annual  Report,  Special  Park  Commis- 
sion, Chicago,  1907. 

f  This  count  was  made  on  another  map  on  which  the  homes  of  only  the 
1903-04  boys  were  located. 

154 


THE   CHILD   WITHOUT   PLAY 

no  recreation  facilities.  Indeed,  it  may  be  truthfully  said  that 
there  was  at  this  time  neither  a  public  playground  nor  a  public 
bathing  beach  in  all  Chicago. 

Moreover,  such  parks  as  existed  were  located  chiefly  in 
the  well-to-do  sections  of  the  city,  which  furnish  a  compar- 
atively small  quota  of  children  to  the  court.  It  has  already 
been  said  that  the  largest  numbers  of  these  children  come  from 
the  river  wards  of  the  West  Side.  Of  these  seven  wards,  three  had 
no  park  area  at  all ;  in  one  there  was  a  [tract  less  than  an  acre 
in  extent — a  scrap  of  lawn  with  a  few  broken  benches,  known  as 
"loafer's  garden";*  two  others  had  each  a  little  open  space  of 
four  or  six  acres.  In  fact,  only  one  of  the  seven  wards  had  a  real 
park.f  These  seven  wards,  therefore,  with  an  area  of  more  than 
5,000  acres,  with  a  population  of  nearly  400,000  people,  were  prac- 
tically without  any  playground  area,  and  it  is  from  these  seven 
wards  that  the  delinquent  children  have  chiefly  come.  Perhaps 
the  meager  recreation  facilities  in  the  past  will  be  better  understood 
in  contrast  with  the  improved  conditions  of  the  present.  For  it  is 
of  interest  that  the  community  has  at  last  recognized  the  need  of  a 
"place  to  play"  and  has  made  great  progress  in  the  last  ten  years 
towards  meeting  this  need.  There  are  now,  for  example,  four  public 
bathing  beaches  and  37  recreation  centers,  1 7  of  which  are  equipped 
with  attractive  "field  houses,"  in  different  parts  of  the  city.J 

*  Bickerdyke  Square  before  its  reconstruction. 

t  This  was  the  Eighteenth  Ward,  with  17  acres  known  as  Union  Park. 
The  following  statement  of  the  area,  population,  and  park  area  of  these  wards  is 
taken  from  the  table  facing  page  132  in  the  Report  of  the  Special  Park  Commission 
(1904)  on  the  Subject  of  a  Metropolitan  Park  System. 

Ward  Park  Area  Ward  Area         Ward  Population 

\6 4.03  800  65,869 

17 0.94  720  68,639 

18 ...17-37  640  33,568 

19 6.14  640  53.514 

9 o  640  55.256 

10 o  640  57.158 

II O  II2O  60.537 

28.48  5200  394.54I 

J  In  January,  1912,  there  were  eleven  recreation  centers  under  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  South  Park  Board,  three  under  the  West  Park  Board,  two  under  the 
Lincoln  Park  Board,  two  under  the  Special  Park  Commission.  There  are  in  addi- 
tion the  four  bathing  beaches  which  have  been  mentioned,  and  the  large  parks, 
which  offer  certain  facilities  for  recreation  especially  to  be  enjoyed  when  a  half 

155 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND   THE   HOME 

These  field  houses  might  perhaps  be  described  as  the  club  houses  of 
the  people.  They  are  provided  with  indoor  gymnasiums  and 
shower  baths  for  both  boys  and  girls,  indoor  playrooms  for  children, 
"branch"  reading  rooms  and  library  stations  of  the  public  library, 
small  rooms  to  be  used  as  regular  meeting  places  for  clubs  of  all 
sorts,  and  large  assembly  halls  for  public  dances  and  dramatic  per- 
formances, festivals  and  wedding  celebrations,  and  all  sorts  of 
public  meetings.  Outdoors  there  are  playgrounds  with  pools  for 
wading  or  swimming  in  summer,  and  for  skating  in  winter.  In 
1899,  when  the  court  was  established,  none  of  these  places  of  recrea- 
tion existed.  In  1903-04  only  seven  had  been  opened. 

Two  charges  of  neglect  may  be  made  against  the  community 
in  the  past.  First,  it  failed  to  provide  the  children  in  its  midst 
with  opportunities  for  clean,  well  planned,  and  wholesome  play; 
second,  it  failed  to  supervise  the  play  with  which  they  provided 
themselves,  so  that  there  should  be  reasonable  safety  from  peril 
to  life,  limb,  and  morals.  Play  is  now  recognized  as  an  essential 
element  in  the  preparation  for  a  vigorous  physical  and  social 
maturity,  and  the  demand  for  a  rational  amount  of  recreation 
should,  perhaps,  like  the  thirst  for  beauty,  be  satisfied  through 
facilities  provided  by  community  effort  instead  of  by  individual 
earnings. 

It  was  pointed  out  in  a  former  chapter  that  the  very 
terms  of  the  charge  on  which  the  child  is  brought  into  court  often 
indicate  social  effort,  misdirected  unfortunately,  but  still  social. 
The  "  gang, "  which  is  frequently  responsible  for  the  offenses  of  its 
members,  presents  a  social  phenomenon  of  hopeful  significance  and 
promise  when  once  understood  and  utilized.  In  the  past,  however, 
its  members  have  had  no  other  education  in  the  fine  duty  of  fol- 
lowing a  leader  than  seeking  adventure  on  the  tracks,  in  the  streets 
at  night,  in  the  unguarded  shop  or  house,  and  then  finding  them- 
selves not  heroes  but  delinquent  boys  in  court  and  finally  perhaps 
pitiful  inmates  of  the  John  Worthy  School. 

The  offenses  committed  by  the  girls  suggest  less  clearly  than 

or  whole  holiday  is  available.  Besides  the  field  houses  now  in  operation,  sites  have 
been  selected  for  five  new  ones  on  the  West  Side.  These  centers  represent  an  ex- 
penditure already  made  of  at  least  $i 3,000,000,  with  an  annual  expenditure  for 
maintenance  of  approximately  $1,000,000.  These  have  been  enjoyed  during  the 
past  years  by  persons  in  about  the  ratio  of  60  men  or  boys  to  40  women  or  girls. 

I56 


THE   CHILD   WITHOUT    PLAY 

those  of  the  boys  the  social  interest  or  group  activity,  and  yet  the 
social  claim  is  as  imperative  with  the  girl  as  with  the  boy  and,  if 
denied,  avenges  itself  by  sanctions  more  fearful.  The  girl,  too,  must 
seek  and  find  her  adventure;  she  must  give  notice  that  she  is  here.* 
There  must  be  the  time  of  veiled  exhibit  and  subtle  invitation; 
there  must  be  opportunity  for  acquiring  skill  in  management  by 
managing  the  smaller  or  the  larger  social  circle;  the  new 'desires 
and  secret  longings  with  reference  to  which  she  is  given  no  dig- 
nified instruction  find  unlimited  gratification  in  the  paths  opened 
before  her  by  the  commercialized  recreation  and  the  vice  of  the 
city.  Nowhere,  in  workshop,  theater,  or  city  street,  by  day  or 
night,  has  there  been  supplied  to  her  the  sense  of  friendly  super- 
vision, which  while  guarding  and  restraining  yet  leaves  her  free, 
because  at  the  same  time  it  guards  and  restrains  those  who  might 
injure  her. 

The  essentials  of  satisfying  play  suggest  themselves  at  once; 
muscular  effort,  giving  exercise  to  the  growing  body;  associated 
effort,  giving  facility  in  social  relationship;  effort  directed  towards 
a  purpose  demanding  preparation  and  planning,  giving  scope  to 
the  developing  human  need  of  consciously  seeking  an  end;  the 
presence  of  a  certain  degree  of  real  or  apparent  risk,  giving  oppor- 
tunity to  the  growing  demand  for  a  chance  to  show  his  prowess 
in  the  case  of  the  boy,  or  a  chance  for  service  in  the  case  of  the 
girl.  For  all  these  claims  the  public  playground  or  recreation 
center  is  now  attempting  to  make  careful  provision;  but  the  street, 
the  narrow  alley,  the  railroad  tracks  for  too  long  offered  a  sorry 
substitute,  and  the  commercial  interests  were  not  slow  to  seize  the 
opportunity  neglected  by  the  city.  We  have  had  the  perilous 
adventure  found  in  the  gang's  undertaking  to  "beat  the  cop"  who 
if  he  were  present  would  surely  "pinch"  the  crowd;  the  excitement 
provided  by  the  "nickel  theater ";f  the  stimulant  supplied  by  the 
cigarette  and  alcohol. 

*  Addams,  Jane:  The  Spirit  of  Youth  and  the  City  Streets,  Chapter  III. 
New  York,  The  Macmillan  Co.,  1909. 

t  Until  recently  the  films  shown  in  these  theaters  were  not  censored,  and  the 
pictures  were  frequently  demoralizing  and  helped  to  make  crime  attractive  to  the 
children  who  attended.  The  Juvenile  Protective  Association  ultimately  succeeded 
in  securing  the  establishment  of  a  censorship  which  has  been  effective  in  suppressing 
the  more  offensive  films.  In  1911,  the  Association  estimated  as  the  result  of  a 
careful  investigation  (see  pamphlet  on  Five  and  Ten  Cent  Theaters;  two  investi- 

157 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 

For  the  girl,  everywhere  unsupervised,  there  is  unregulated 
play  in  early  childhood.  Later  in  life  she  has  the  cheap  theater; 
the  cheap  but  brilliantly  lighted  restaurant;  the  dance  hall,  con- 
nected with  the  saloon,  where  she  and  her  escort  pay  5  cents  for 
the  privilege  of  dancing  a  certain  time  within  a  charmed  circle  en- 
closed in  ropes;*  then,  too  frequently,  the  rooming  house  of  low 
order  with  the  companion  of  her  choice;  and  then  possibly  the 
final  step  of  promiscuous  intercourse  either  in  the  house  of  pros- 
titution or  as  the  result  of  solicitation  on  the  street. 

In  discussing  the  delinquency  map,  attention  was  not  called 
to  the  large  number  of  dots  in  the  Eighteenth  Ward — not  a  signifi- 
cant fact  in  discussing  "delinquent  homes"  for  this  is  not  chiefly  a 
region  of  homes,  but  one  of  low  resorts  and  rooming  houses.  The 
children  brought  in  from  this  ward  are  largely  girls,  and  for  the  most 
part  girls  who  have  already  had  the  experience  of  a  life  of  commer- 
cialized vice.  While  comparatively  few  delinquent  girls  actually 
come  from  the  segregated  "west  side  levee,"  the  number  who  are 
found  in  that  debatable  territory  which  hangs  like  a  fringe  on  the 
so-called  "levee"  district  and  which  is  honeycombed  with  vice  is 
so  large  as  to  be  truly  appalling.  That  such  conditions  can  exist 

gations  by  the  Juvenile  Protective  Association  of  Chicago,  1909  and  1911)  that 
nearly  32,000  children  attended  the  five-  and  ten-cent  theaters  daily.  There  are 
about  300  such  theaters  in  Chicago,  many  of  them  in  undesirable  localities.  "The 
theater  itself  is  often  situated  next  door  to  a  saloon  or  a  transient  rooming  house. 
In  fact,  it  is  so  often  in  the  same  building  with  the  latter  that  the  phrase  'A  Five 
Cent  Theater  Hotel'  has  become  current."  The  Association  rightly  demands  that 
the  theaters  "should  be  encouraged  and  supported,  but  freed  from  all  objectionable 
features  and  made  an  agency  for  wholesome  recreation,  culture,  and  education, 
rather  than  for  vice,  disorder,  and  delinquency." 

*  In  a  recent  report  issued  by  the  Juvenile  Protective  Association  as  a  result 
of  an  investigation  of  the  public  dance  halls  of  Chicago,  it  was  estimated  that  as 
many  as  86,000  young  people  attend  the  dances  in  a  single  evening.  It  was  pointed 
out  that  these  public  dance  halls  "are  largely  controlled  by  the  saloon  and  vice 
interests.  The  recreation  of  thousands  of  young  people  has  been  commercialized, 
and  as  a  result  hundreds  of  young  girls  are  annually  started  on  the  road  to  ruin, 
for  the  saloonkeepers  and  dance  hall  owners  have  only  one  end  in  view,  and  that  is 
profit.  .  .  .  One  condition  is  general.  Most  of  the  dance  halls  exist  for  the 
/salepf  liquor,  not  for  the  purpose  of  dancing,  which  is  of  only  secondary  importance. 
TDnThllnar'W  and  ninety  halls  had  a  saloon  opening  into  them,  and  liquor  was  sold 
in  240  out  of  the  328  halls,  and  in  the  others — except  in  rare  instances — return 
checks  were  given  to  facilitate  the  use  of  the  neighboring  saloons."  At  present  in 
Chicago,  it  is  said  that  the  dance  halls  are  "places  where  decent  young  people  are 
too  often  decoyed  into  evil  and  where  mere  search  for  pleasure  so  easily  leads  into 
disgrace,  disease  and  crime."  See  Our  Most  Popular  Recreation  Controlled  by 
the  Liquor  Interests;  a  study  of  public  dance  halls,  by  the  Juvenile  Protective 
Association  of  Chicago. 

I58 


THE   CHILD   WITHOUT   PLAY 

as  fourteen-year-old  children  resorting  either  to  rooming  houses 
or  to  houses  of  prostitution,  is  an  indictment  of  the  community  as 
frightful  as  the  fact  of  their  betrayal  by  the  fathers  and  brothers  is 
of  unregulated  family  life.* 

It  has  been  pointed  out  that  these  children  are  poor,  that  many, 
especially  of  the  girls,  belong  to  the  lowest  economic  group,  and 
in  perhaps  the  largest  numbers  to  the  degraded  class.  Both  boys 
and  girls,  and  especially  girls,  are  the  victims  of  neighborhood 
conditions.  They  have  likewise  been  shown  to  be  ignorant  chil- 
dren. Their  play  would  be  lacking  in  all  the  ingenuity  that  might 
come  as  the  result  of  hearing  well-selected  stories,  or  of  constructive 
effort  in  the  line  of  applying  theories  given  in  school.  They  are 
at  the  mercy  of  the  environment  to  whose  suggestion  they  are  aban- 
doned, and  of  their  own  impulses  which  are  never  so  wayward,  so 
irrational,  so  perilous,  if  not  guided,  as  at  this  time  of  bewilder- 
ment and  questioning. 

"To  fail  to  provide  for  the  recreation  of  youth  is  not  only 
to  deprive  all  of  them  of  their  natural  form  of  expression,  but  is 
certain  to  subject  some  of  them  to  the  overwhelming  temptation 
of  illicit  and  soul-destroying  pleasures.  To  insist  that  young 
people  shall  forecast  their  rose-colored  future  only  in  a  house  of 
dreams  is  to  deprive  the  real  world  of  that  warmth  and  reassurance 
which  it  so  sorely  needs  and  to  which  it  is  justly  entitled."! 

*  To  the  perils  of  unregulated  and  unsupervised  recreation  on  the  part  of 
the  girls,  whether  the  recreation  be  in  city,  small  town,  or  country,  the  interviews 
with  263  girls  at  the  State  Training  School  give  convincing  testimony.  See  intro- 
ductory statement  in  Appendix  V,  p.  314.  Many  of  these  girls  had  their  initiation 
into  irregular  sex  experiences  while  at  play  when  very  young;  38  were  ten  years 
of  age  or  under  and  described  their  first  companion  as  a  "playmate."  To  a  large 
number  of  girls  the  first  irregular  relationship  came  as  an  incident  to  such  forms 
of  recreation  as  going  to  the  theater,  to  picnics,  to  skating  rinks,  walking  in  the 
park,  or  "buggy  riding";  in  a  few  cases  the  girl  was  going  to  or  from  church. 

The  stories  told  by  these  girls  of  the  way  in  which  they  entered  into  careers 
of  wrongdoing  make  it  clear  that  the  city  street,  the  park,  and  the  country  road  are 
equally  in  need  of  supervision  if  the  young  and  ignorant  are  to  be  allowed  to  pass 
their  time  on  them.  A  study  of  these  schedules  also  threw  light  on  the  fearful 
substitutes  to  which  the  girls  had  turned  in  the  search  for  recreation  or  a  little 
spending  money.  It  appeared,  for  example,  that  some  girls  had  yielded  to  tempta- 
tion in  order  to  obtain  a  small  sum  of  money,  one,  two,  or  three  dollars;  while  to 
others  candy  or  theater  tickets  had  been  the  reward. 

A  further  and  very  illuminating  discussion  of  this  whole  question  is  to  be 
found  in  Addams,  Jane:  Anew  Conscience  and  an  Ancient  Evil.  New  York, The 
Macmillan  Co.,  1912. 

t  Addams,  Jane:  The  Spirit  of  Youth  and  the  City  Streets,  p.  103.  New 
York,  The  Macmillan  Co.,  1909. 

159 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  CHILD  FROM  THE  COMFORTABLE  HOME:    THE 
PROBLEM  OF  THE  UNMANAGEABLE  BOY 

IN  the  preceding  chapters  we  have  considered  in  succession 
different  conditions  in  the  home  or  in  the  neighborhood  which 
have  seemed  to  explain  in  some  measure  the  delinquency  of 
the  children  who  have  been  brought  to  court.  There  still  remain, 
however,  some  more  baffling  cases  in  which  none  of  the  untoward 
conditions  that  have  been  discussed  seem  to  be  present — cases  of 
children  who  have  become  delinquent  in  spite  of  kind  and  sympa- 
thetic parents  and  good  homes.  The  table  of  economic  groups 
which  was  given  in  an  earlier  chapter*  showed  that  only  one-fifth  v 
of  the  delinquent  boys  and  one-tenth  of  the  delinquent  girls  came  — 
from  what  may  be  called  "fairly  comfortable  homes,"  that  is, 
homes  we  have  placed  in  Group  III;  and  that  not  2  per  cent  of  the 
children  came  from  the  wealthier  homes  of  Group  IV.  It  will  be  re- 
called that  the  most  typical  family  in  Group  III  was  that  of  the 
"skilled  artisan  who  was  earning  good  wages  and  was  regularly 
employed."  The  homes  were  often  pleasant  as  well  as  clean  and 
.decent,  and  were  seldom  in  poor  neighborhoods.  The  figures 
which  have  been  given  do  not  mean  that  the  children  of  the  poor 
are  more  seriously  delinquent  than  the  children  of  the  well-to-do, 
but  rather  that  the  offenses  of  the  latter  do  not  easily  bring  them 
within  reach  of  the  court.  Bad  children  in  good  homes  are  for 
the  most  part  disciplined  at  home  or  "  sent  away  to  school,"  while 
bad  children  in  poor  homes  get  into  the  juvenile  court  and  are 
frequently  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School  or  to  some  similar  in- 
stitution. 

The  problem  of  the  delinquent  child  from  the  comfortable 
home  is,  then,  so  far  as  the  court  is  concerned,  a  comparatively 
small  one  and  almost  exclusively  a  problem  of  the  boy.  Some  of 

*  See  Chapter  IV,  p.  72. 
1  1 60 


THE   CHILD    FROM   THE   COMFORTABLE    HOME 

the  families  in  this  group,  however,  although  they  may  be  in  good 
circumstances  when  the  child  is  brought  to  court,  were  at  one  time 
very  poor,  and  the  child's  delinquency  may,  of  course,  be  related  to 
an  earlier  condition  of  poverty.  In  some  of  the  cases,  for  example, 
a  widowed  mother  has  remarried,  and  the  stepfather  is  well-to-do 
and  good  to  the  children,  but  they  may  have  been  much  neglected 
owing  to  the  mother's  effort  to  support  the  family  during  her 
widowhood.  Moreover,  in  some  of  the  homes  in  which  the  pe- 
cuniary circumstances  are  satisfactory,  there  are  cases  of  degrada- 
tion, incompetence,  or  orphanage,  which  place  that  particular 
family  in  one  of  the  groups  already  discussed.  When  all  deduc- 
tions are  made,  however,  there  still  remain  a  few  children,  almost 
entirely  boys,  who  come  from  good  homes  and  have  good  parents, 
and  whose  delinquency  does  not  seem  to  be  in  any  way  attribut- 
able to  neglect. 

This  brings  us  to  the  indisputable  fact  that  the  bad  boy  is  not 
necessarily  the  product  of  poverty  or  misfortune.  Even  in  the 
most  respectable  families,  there  are  boys  who  find  the  amusements 
provided  by  civilized  life  very  dull  and  who  must  occasionally  fare 
..forth  to  feed  the  gnawing  spirit  of  adventure.  It  is  of  course  too 
much  to  hope  that  on  these  occasions  they  will  always  be  able  to 
escape  the  delinquent  paths  which  lead  to  the  juvenile  court  and 
beyond.  There  are  also  those  more  difficult  cases  both  of  boys  and 
of  girls  who  may  be  said  to  have  marked  tendencies  to  vicious  ways, 
some  of  whom  must  inevitably  be  brought  to  the  court  for  extra 
parental  discipline. 

The  offenses  charged  against  these  children  from  good  homes 
are  chiefly  those  which  suggest  the  unmanageable  boy  that  every 
mother  knows.  The  "flipper"  is  much  in  evidence,  and  there  are 
many  such  "larking"  offenses  as  breaking  a  Chinaman's  window; 
"being  with  some  other  boys  who  broke  street  lamps  and  let  out 
oil";  stealing  watermelons  from  a  freight  car;  entering  a  church 
and  destroying  the  key  of  the  organ;  selling  transfers;  shooting 
craps;  knocking  down  signs  in  front  of  Chinese  laundries;  taking 
locks  from  a  basement  door;  "always  fighting,  and  neighbors  wished 
it  stopped";  stealing  apples  from  a  freight  car;  building  a  fire  on 
the  railroad  tracks;  breaking  a  slot  machine;  taking  waste  from  an 
axle  box;  calling  neighbor  a  scab  (gang  of  four  boys);  throwing 

161  * 


THE    DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND   THE    HOME 

snowballs  at  another  lad  (mother  says  "all  boys  get  into  a  fight 
sometimes") ;  "fighting  with  other  boys  and  father  could  not  make 
him  go  to  school."  There  are  many  cases  of  what  may  be  called 
adventurous  stealing,  such  as  stealing  a  bathing  suit;  stealing  a 
tent;  stealing  chickens;  stealing  linseed  oil  barrels  with  a  gang 
of  boys;  robbing  a  man  and  carrying  a  loaded  revolver;  "carrying 
a  wrench  intending  to  hold  up  people";  breaking  into  a  store, 
church,  or  house  with  other  boys;  stealing  canned  goods;  breaking 
seals  on  railroad  cars  and  stealing  things  of  various  sorts,  brass, 
copper,  wire,  a  brass  handle  from  a  passenger  coach,  and  occasion- 
ally, but  more  rarely,  grain,  and  even  coal. 

A  further  word  with  regard  to  the  stealing  among  boys  in 
this  group  should  perhaps  be  added.  Examples  have  been  given  of 
the  kinds  of  thefts  committed,  and  it  is  clear,  after  a  careful  study 
of  offenses  committed  by  boys  in  Group  III,  that  much  of  the 
stealing  is  either  taking  "junk"  or  grain  from  the  railroad  or  some- 
thing similar  which  can  be  sold  for  spending  money,  or  stealing  as 
an  incident  to  some  adventurous  exploit  such  as  breaking  into  a 
house,  or  robbing  a  man.  There  are  a  few  cases,  however,  that 
must  be  regarded  as  serious.  There  is  the  case,  for  example,  of 
a  boy  who  was  the  terror  of  the  neighborhood.  At  one  time  he 
had  six  or  seven  stolen  bicycles  in  the  basement  of  the  apartment 
house  in  which  he  lived,  and  he  regularly  stole  dogs  to  get  rewards. 
At  the  age  of  fourteen  the  boy  was  brought  into  court  as  incor- 
rigible. His  morals  were  bad;  he  would  not  attend  school,  stole 
from  stores,  and  could  not  be  controlled.  He  was  finally  sent  to  a 
school  in  the  East,  where  he  was  put  at  mechanical  work.  He  has 
turned  out  to  be  a  very  good  machinist,  is  living  in  a  suburb,  work- 
ing in  a  machine  shop,  and  studying  hard.  In  this  case  the  boy 
was  one  of  seven  children,  the  family  lived  in  a  comfortable 
apartment,  and  the  father  was  well-to-do.  There  were  two 
untoward  circumstances  in  the  family:  the  boy's  own  mother  was 
dead  and  his  father  is  reported  to  have  been  a  professional  gambler 
and  bookmaker.  Neither  of  these  circumstances,  however,  seems 
to  explain  his  bad  conduct,  for  his  stepmother  was  very  kind  and 
his  father  seems  to  have  been  good  in  the  home. 

There  is  another  case  of  a  similarly  bad  boy  with  a  home  only 
slightly  less  favorable,  who  also  turned  out  well.  He  was  accused 

162 


THE   CHILD   FROM   THE   COMFORTABLE   HOME 

of  stealing  rugs  and  carpets  from  a  hotel  and  was  sent  to  the  John 
Worthy  School  for  six  months.  At  the  age  of  fourteen  he  was 
brought  in  again,  charged  with  breaking  into  a  barn  and  stealing 
a  revolver;  this  time  he  was  put  on  probation;  but  the  next  year  he 
was  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School  accused  of  loitering  around 
the  railroad  tracks,  throwing  stones  at  passenger  trains,  breaking 
windows  and  signal  lamps.  It  should  be  added  that  this  boy's 
school  statement  is  an  especially  intelligent  one  and  that  he  is  now 
working  in  a  garage  and  pays  his  board  at  home. 

A  similarly  interesting  case,  though  one  in  which  the  outcome 
is  still  uncertain,  is  that  of  an  American  boy  whose  father  was  once 
a  western  farmer  but  is  now  a  post-office  clerk  in  Chicago.  The 
boy  had  two  older  brothers,  who  were  both  wards  of  the  court  and 
who  belonged  to  a  "gang  that  made  stealing  and  robbery  their 
pastime, "  and  unquestionably  their  influence  had  much  to  do  with 
his  delinquency.  At  the  age  of  thirteen,  this  boy  was  in  court  on 
the  charge  of  "disorderly  conduct"  because  he  had  become  asso- 
ciated with  a  "gang"  that  had  led  "an  assault"  on  the  boys  of 
another  school;  at  fourteen  he  was  brought  in  again  for  assaulting 
a  boy  at  school  and  trying  to  take  away  his  watch;  at  sixteen 
he  with  three  other  boys  was  charged  with  breaking  into  several 
stores  and  stealing  $50  worth  of  goods.  Within  a  year,  he  came 
in  for  a  fourth  time,  charged  with  stealing  candy  and  cigars  worth 
$40;  and  finally,  a  fifth  time,  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  he  was 
brought  in  again,  charged  with  setting  fire  to  a  garbage  can  and 
burning  a  back  porch.  This  record  in  a  good  many  ways  is  a 
typical  one,  beginning  with  the  trouble  at  school  and  going  on 
through  so-called  "burglaries"  with  a  gang  until  the  final  act  of 
wrongdoing  which  threatened  most  serious  consequences;  for  the 
house  might  only  too  easily  have  gone  with  the  back  porch.  The 
interesting  part  of  this  record,  however,  is  the  story  of  the  boy's 
progress  under  probation.  Each  time  when  he  was  brought  into 
court  he  was  put  on  probation,  for  he  had  a  good  home  and  good 
parents  who  were  eager  to  do  all  that  they  could  to  co-operate  with 
the  court  in  the  discipline  of  the  boy.  He  was,  at  different  times, 
under  the  care  of  two  regular  probation  officers  who  finally  solicited 
the  aid  of  a  "friendly  visitor"  with  very  good  results  indeed.  In 
one  of  her  recent  reports  she  says  the  boy  "has  been  working  for 

163 


THE    DELINQUENT   CHILD    AND   THE    HOME 

three  months  at  the ,  and  a  month  ago  was  given 

charge  of  the  vault  there.  He  has  been  attending  night  school  and 
that  he  may  pass  he  has  been  meeting  me  down  town  at  the  noon 
hour,  twice  a  week,  that  I  might  help  him  with  his  grammar.  He 
is  inclined  toward  adventure  and  twice  this  winter  he  has  been 
camping  on  the  dunes  in  a  small  tent.  He  has  given  up  his  old 
companions  and  the  new  ones  are  of  a  distinctly  better  type.  One 
of  the  best  things  about  him  is  that  he  has  a  real  interest  in  the  city 
and  would  make  an  earnest  fight  for  good  politics  if  such  an  oppor- 
tunity were  clearly  presented  to  him."  Her  final  comment,  how- 
ever, is  of  interest,  "  I  don't  vouch  for  this  boy's  future  unless  he  is 
given  some  cause  which  is  worthy  to  arouse  his  loyalty  and  en- 
thusiasm." It  may  be  of  further  interest  to  quote  from  the  pro- 
bation schedule  that  "  the  friendly  visitor  has  been  deeply  interested 
in  this  boy  and  has  taken  him  to  the  theater,  to  lectures,  to  parks, 
and  other  places  of  amusement.  The  boy  goes  to  her  every  week, 
though  she  does  not  require  it." 

In  some  other  cases  where  the  boy  was  considered  very  bad 
or  had  committed  at  least  one  serious  offense,  certain  conditions  in 
the  home  that  have  been  described  in  the  earlier  chapters,  were 
so  unfavorable  as  to  seem  to  explain  his  delinquency.  Such  is 
the  case  of  a  boy  who  had  already  been  in  police  court  for  stealing 
a  valuable  gold  watch  and  was  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School 
for  seven  months.  There  is  no  reason  to  think  that  he  has 
since  turned  out  badly,  although  his  present  whereabouts  are  un- 
known. The  boy  came  from  a  thoroughly  demoralized  home 
although  the  family  lived  in  a  very  good  house,  which  they  owned, 
in  a  respectable  neighborhood.  The  mother  had  died  of  tubercu- 
losis. The  father,  who  inherited  property  and  was  well-to-do, 
was  a  drunkard;  and  for  several  years  after  the  mother's  death  the 
children  had  no  one  to  care  for  them  and  were  "worse  off  than 
beggar  children."  Out  of  1 1  children,  nine  died  of  tuberculosis,  and 
the  only  other  one  living,  besides  the  boy  who  came  to  court,  was 
insane.  Another  boy  who  came  from  a  comfortable  but  demor- 
alized home  belonged  to  an  American  family  in  which  the  father, 
a  stea4y,jmdw^rkingj,j'espectable  man,  was  a  fireman,  "earning 
good  money."  The  mother,  however,  was  a  drinking,  quarrel- 
some woman  who  "had  a  bad  name  in  the  neighborHood" ;  the 

164 


THE   CHILD    FROM   THE   COMFORTABLE   HOME 

home,  although  well  furnished,  was  dirty  and  disorderly.  The 
children  are  all  said  to  be  "wild";  the  father  himself  put  one 
daughter  in  the  House  of  the  Good  Shepherd,  one  boy  has  joined 
the  army,  and  still  another  is  a  ward  of  the  court. 

In  another  case  a  little  Polish  boy  from  a  Group  III  home 
seemed  to  be  very  bad.  He  was  first  brought  to  court  at  the  age 
of  twelve  for  breaking  into  a  candy  store  and  a  flat  and  was  sent 
to  the  John  Worthy  School;  he  came  into  court  again  at  the  age  of 
thirteen  for  breaking  into  and  "burglarizing"  three  different  places 
and  was  sent  to  another  institution  for  delinquent  boys.  In  the 
following  year,  however,  he  again  broke  into  a  store,  was  brought 
to  court  and  this  time  put  on  probation.  Although  the  boy  lived 
in  a  comfortable  home  (seven  rooms  with  "steam  heat  and  bath") 
at  the  time  when  he  was  brought  to  court,  the  family  of  1 1  had 
formerly  lived  in  four  rooms.  The  parents  spoke  very  little  English 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  they  had  been  in  this  country  twenty 
years.  This  boy  was  "not  very  bright,"  his  eyesight  was  poor,  he 
was  "very  nervous"  and  had  been  threatened  with  St.  Vitus' 
dance.  An  older  brother,  who  was  brighter  than  this  boy,  had 
had  a  very  bad  influence  over  him  and  had  been  sent  to  the  Bride- 
well for  leading  him  astray.  In  this  case  probation  did  a  great  deal 
for  the  boy.  The  officer  sent  a  friendly  visitor  to  the  home  who 
visited  the  boy  often.  She  has  helped  him  in  school  and  tried  to 
provide  better  opportunities  of  recreation  for  him.  She  has  done 
much  to  make  the  family  understand  and  sympathize  with  him. 
The  parents  like  her  and  she  has  been  an  important  factor  in 
improving  conditions  in  the  home. 

A  classification  of  all  the  offenses  committed  by  the  boys  in 
this  "comfortable  group,"  which  is  presented  in  Table  29,  on  the 
following  page,  makes  possible  an  interesting  comparison  with  the 
earlier  table  of  charges  for  all  the  boys  brought  into  court.* 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  a  larger  proportion  of  these  boys 
came  in  for  disorderly  conduct,  and  a  smaller  proportion  for  in- 
corrigibility.  That  is,  by  comparing  this  table  with  Table  5,  it 
appears  that  while  5 1  per  cent  of  all  the  boys  came  in  for  stealing 
and  47  per  cent  of  these  boys  have  committed  this  offense,  22  per 
cent  of  all  the  boys  were  charged  with  "incorrigibility,"  but  only  12 

*  See  Table  5,  p.  28. 
12  165 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND   THE   HOME 

per  cent  of  these  boys  are  so  charged ;  1 6  per  cent  of  all  the  boys  were 
charged  with  "disorderly  conduct,"  which  is  the  offense  of  28  per 
cent  of  these  boys.  The  difference  in  the  condition  of  the  homes 
might  lead  us  to  expect  this.  The  boy  from  these  "better-off" 
families  who  gets  into  court  has  been  off  with  his  gang  stealing  or 
committing  some  disorderly  act  which  relieves  the  monotony  of 
£  life,  and  which  he  probably  would  not  have  committed  alone.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  proportion  of  cases  is  fewer  in  which  the  parents 
cannot  control  the  boy,  and  the  percentage  of  incorrigibles  is  lower 
than  it  is  for  the  group  as  a  whole.  The  incorrigible  boy  is  most 
frequently  an  evidence  of  lack  of  discipline  at  home,  and  these 
parents  are  able  to  give  more  time  and  thought  and  perhaps  greater 
intelligence  to  the  management  of  their  children  than  can  be  given 
in  the  poorer  families. 

TABLE  29. — OFFENSES  OF    DELINQUENT    BOYS  FROM   COMFORTABLE 

HOMES  (i.  €.,  IN  GROUPS  III  OR  IV  *)  BROUGHT  TO  COURT 

DURING  1903-04 

Offense                 Number  Per  Cent 

Stealing 63  47.0 

Incorrigibility.  .  .  .    '.      16  11.9 

Disorderly  conduct  .     38  28.4 

Malicious  mischief. .       5  3.7 

Vagrancy 3  2.2 

Immorality i  .8 

Dependent  charges. . 

Truancy 8  6.0 

Total 134  100.0 

a  See  Chapter  IV,  p.  72. 

It  is  also  an  evidence  of  greater  protection  at  home  that  the 
boys  of  this  "comfortable  group"  are  older  when  they  are  brought 
into  court  than  the  boys  in  the  other  groups. 

Of  these  boys,  only  43  per  cent  came  into  court  when  they 
were  thirteen  or  under,  while  the  table  giving  the  ages  for  all  boys 
showed  that  48  per  cent  were  thirteen  or  under;  and  while  only  27 
per  cent  of  the  well-to-do  boys  were  twelve  or  under,  33  per  cent  of 
all  the  boys  were  in  this  age  group. 


166 


Age 

Number 
i 

10  

6 

ii  

10 

12  

16 

ia  .  . 

20 

14.  . 

37 

IE.. 

34. 

Total  .  , 

.     124 

THE   CHILD    FROM   THE   COMFORTABLE    HOME 

TABLE    30. — AGES   OF   DELINQUENT    BOYS    FROM   COMFORTABLE 
HOMES    (z.    e.,    FROM   GROUPS    III    OR    IV) 

Per  cent 

.8 
4.8 
8.1 
12.9 
16.1 
29.9 
27.4 

1 00.0 

In  these  better-grade  homes  which,  it  must  be  remembered, 
are  for  the  most  part  not  yet  in  the  social  stratum  in  which  the 
proffered  help  of  the  court  would  be  resented,  an  intelligent  under- 
standing of  the  work  of  the  probation  officer  is  usually  found,  and 
a  willingness  to  co-operate  on  the  part  of  the  parents.  In  many  of 
these  cases  such  records  as  the  following  occur:  "The  mother  feels 
that  the  officer  did  the  boy  a  great  deal  of  good,"  "the  officer  had 
the  co-operation  of  the  mother  in  everything,"  "the  mother  says 
the  officer  was  always  friendly  and  helpful,"  "the  mother  thinks  it 
was  good  for  the  boy  to  be  under  the  care  of  an  officer,"  "  the  mother 
thinks  the  officer's  services  were  helpful,"  "the  officer  received  the 
co-operation  of  the  parents  in  everything  she  did  for  the  boy,"  "  the 
parents  were  always  in  sympathy  with  the  court's  work  and  helped 
the  probation  officer  all  they  could,"  "the  mother  speaks  well  of 
the  officer's  services."  In  one  case,  which  is  in  a  measure  typical, 
the  probation  schedule  states  that  "although  the  mother  could 
speak  no  English  she  always  received  the  officer  kindly  and  was 
ready  to  carry  out  any  suggestion  he  made,"  and  the  family  sched- 
ule showed  that  the  mother,  in  turn,  spoke  with  sincere  apprecia- 
tion of  the  officer's  services.  "The  boy,"  she  said,  "was  always 
glad  to  see  the  officer,  who  was  very  friendly." 

Lack  of  intelligence  on  the  part  of  the  parents  in  these  homes 
is  likely  to  show  itself  in  too  great  leniency  rather  than  in  the  semi- 
brutal  treatment  sometimes  found  in  Tower-grade  homes,  which  often 
results  in  the  boy's  appearance  in  court  on  an  incorrigible  charge. 
Thus,  in  the  case  of  one  boy,  an  only  child,  who  was  delicate  when 
young,  the  probation  officer  thought  that  the  mother  "spoiled 
the  boy  and  always  tried  to  shield  him  from  punishment";  the 

167 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 

officer  could  control  the  boy  "only  by  threats,  as  he  thought  that 
people  who  talked  kindly  were  dead  easy."  There  are  a  good 
many  other  cases  in  which  equally  indulgent  parents  are  indicated. 
Thus,  in  one  case  the  "mother  thinks  the  boy  is  perfect";  in 
another,  the  officer  believes  "the  parents  are  too  lenient  with  the 
children."  In  still  another  case  the  parents  insisted  that  the 
presence  of  the  boy  in  court  was  only  the  "officer's  spite  work"; 
the  boy,  they  said,  "had  never  given  any  trouble  except  getting 
married  six  months  ago  at  the  age  of  eighteen."  In  a  similar  case, 
the  mother  is  sure  the  boy  has  always  been  a  good  boy  and  that  it 
is  "a  mistake  that  he  was  arrested." 

It  is  impossible  in  the  cases  of  the  "comfortable  group"  as  it 
was  for  the  whole  group  of  delinquent  boys,  to  ascertain  how  far 
"gang  influence"  may  have  been  responsible  for  their  delinquency. 
But  with  these  boys,  even  more  than  with  those  from  the  lower- 
class  homes,  the  gang  seems  to  throw  a  halo  of  good  comradeship 
and  security  over  the  wrongdoing.  In  many  cases  the  boy  is  un- 
doubtedly tempted  to  steal  or  to  undertake  some  high  sounding  feat 
of  daring,  such  as  "  holding  up  a  man  with  revolvers"  or  "  breaking 
into  a  house,"  which  he  would  never  have  thought  of  attempting 
by  himself.  The  boy  who  would  never  steal  alone,  is  quite  ready 
to  steal  with  his  gang,  and  the  gang  leader  is  not  a  common  law- 
breaker in  the  eyes  of  his  followers,  but  a  glittering  hero  who  has 
helped  them  to  live  in  days  of  splendor.  An  interesting  case  in 
point  is  that  of  a  young  American  boy  who,  with  his  gang,  "  stole 
ice  cream  from  a  Greek."  This  boy  who  "  had  1 1  dishes  as 
his  share"  undoubtedly  well  deserved  the  penalty  of  the  four 
months  of  institutional  life  which  followed,  but  the  1 1  dishes 
would  scarcely  have  been  enjoyed  without  an  admiring  circle  of 
followers.  There  are,  indeed,  many  cases  in  which  the  offense  as 
described  in  the  court  records  would  be  quite  unintelligible  with- 
out the  important  qualifying  words — "  being  with  a  crowd  of  boys." 

It  should  be  pointed  out  here,  perhaps,  in  conclusion,  that  in 
the  preceding  chapters  no  attempt  has  been  made  to  charge  up 
against  the  home  or  the  community  all  the  offenses  of  the  delin- 
quent children  of  the  court.  It  is  only  too  obvious  that,  when  all  the 
explaining  is  done,  there  remain  a  considerable  number  of  bad  boys 

168 


THE    CHILD    FROM   THE   COMFORTABLE    HOME 

who  cannot  be  explained  away.*  Sometimes  a  mother  seeks  to 
excuse  the  wrongdoing  by  saying  she  is  sure  the  boy  is  "not  quite 
right";  but  probation  officer  and  teacher,  who  are  more  disinter- 
ested, insist  that  he  is  only  subject  to  violent  fits  of  temper  and 
that  he  will  be  improved  by  residence  in  the  John  Worthy  School 
or  in  some  other  disciplinary  institution.  The  mother  is  right 
in  knowing  in  her  heart  that  the  boy  is  not  really  bad  and  in  feeling 
sure  that  he  will  come  out  all  right,  but  she  is  bewildered  and 
frightened  at  what  must  seem  to  her  a  calamitous  result  of  his 
bad  conduct. 

There  has,  of  course,  never  been  a  time  when  restless  groups 
of  boys  did  not  live  in  a  golden  age  where  watermelons  and  apples 
grew  only  to  be  "  swiped,"  and  where  breaking  windows  and  knock- 
ing down  signs  figured  as  glorious  achievements.  In  the  immortal 
adventurous  days  of  Tom  Sawyer  and  Huckleberry  Finn,  every 
member  of  their  pirate  band  escaped  the  juvenile  court,  but  they 
are  the  correct  prototypes  of  many  of  the  boys  with  whom  we  have 
to  deal  not  only  in  this  group,  but  in  families  of  every  social  stratum. 
It  may  be  well,  by  way  of  summary,  to  recall  the  description  of  the 
ingenious  leader  of  that  historic  gang:  "Not  bad,  so  to  say — only 
mischievous.  He  warn't  any  more  responsible  than  a  colt.  He 
never  meant  any  harm  and  he  was  the  best  hearted  boy  that  ever 
was." 

*  Many  of  these  cases  are  of  peculiar  interest  to  the  psychopathic  expert 
who,  by  a  careful  analysis  of  the  family  history  and  by  an  elaborate  testing  of  the 
child's  sense  and  nerve  peculiarities,  can  sometimes  detect  the  abnormal  conditions 
which  are  manifesting  themselves  in  a  persistent  and  apparently  inexplicable  way- 
wardness. For  the  scientific  study  of  just  such  cases  as  these  the  Juvenile  Psy- 
chopathic Institute  has  recently  been  established.  See  footnote,  p.  5. 


169 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  COURT  AND  THE  DELINQUENT  FAMILY:    SOME 
ASPECTS  OF  THE  PROBLEM  OF  TREATMENT 

IN  the  foregoing  chapters  an  attempt  has  been  made  to  de- 
scribe those  conditions  surrounding  the  children  of  the  court 
that  may  have  a  bearing  on  their  delinquency.    The  statute 
classes  together  as  terms  capable  of  a  single  definition  "dependent" 
and  "neglected,"  but  we  believe  that  the  delinquent  child  appears 
in  this  study  as  likewise  a  neglected  child — neglected  by  the  home, 
by  the  school,  and  by  the  community. 

It  is  also  evident  from  the  facts  which  have  been  presented 
that  the  unit  with  which  the  court  really  deals  is  not  the  child  but 
the  family. 

It  remains  for  us  now  in  this  final  chapter  to  set  forth  briefly 
some  of  the  problems  of  the  family  as  they  are  presented 
to  the  court.  The  court  is  an  instrument  by  means  of  which  the 
community  attempts  to  direct  and  supervise  the  care  of  the  de- 
linquent child.  Obviously  the  possibilities  of  successful  care  of 
the  child  by  the  court  depend  largely  upon  conditions  in  the  home 
and  the  neighborhood,  and  so  long  as  the  child  is  left  within  the 
home  or  withdrawn  only  temporarily  from  it,  the  court  deals  with 
the  child  only  by  dealing  in  some  measure  with  the  entire  family 
group. 

Looking  at  these  "delinquent"  families  from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  court  they  fall  into  several  classes.  There  are  first, 
those  in  which  the  conditions  within  the  home  are  favorable  and  in 
which  the  parents  understand  the  child's  delinquency  and  either 
appeal  to  the  court  to  support  their  authority  or,  when  they  do  not 
take  the  initiative  themselves  by  bringing  the  child  into  court,  are 
quite  willing  to  co-operate  in  the  measures  taken  for  his  welfare. 
This  is  a  hopeful  and  fortunately  a  numerous  class  so  far  as  de- 
linquent boys  are  concerned;  and  it  includes  homes  from  every  eco- 


THE    COURT   AND   THE    DELINQUENT   FAMILY 

nomic  stratum.  In  these  families  over  and  over  again  the  mother's 
comment  to  the  investigator  was  that  little  Bill  or  John  had  not 
been  "really  bad"  and  that  "getting  into  court  gave  him  such  a 
scare  that  he  straightened  up  at  once  and  the  officer  did  not  have 
to  come  very  long."  It  is  clear  that  in  cases  like  this  where  the 
home  is  good  and  the  parents  merely  need  to  have  their  own  policy 
with  regard  to  the  child  given  the  temporary  support  of  a  coercive 
authority,  there  is  no  "family  problem"  before  the  court.  The 
family  becomes  only  a  most  valuable  co-operating  agency. 

In  a  different  class,  however,  are  those  homes  in  which  the 
parents  wish  to  co-operate,  but  in  which  the  conditions  in  the  home 
or  the  neighborhood  make  co-operation  impossible.  The  figure  of 
the  widowed  or  deserted  mother  who  goes  out  to  work  looms  large 
in  this  group.  Although  she  is  intelligent  enough  to  know  what  a 
good  home  is  and  does  her  best  to  maintain  one,  the  condition  of 
her  misfortune  renders  her  most  strenuous  efforts  futile.  In  the 
families  in  this  group,  the  spiritual  power  is  greater  than  the  pe- 
cuniary resources.  They  are  poor  because  the  breadwinner  may 
have  been  disabled  or  because  there  may  have  been  illness  or 
accident  or  other  misfortune.  In  these  homes  the  ideals  are  good, 
but  misfortune  leading  often  to  economic  pressure  seems  to  neces- 
sitate the  sacrifice  of  the  children.  This  class  presents  a  difficult 
problem  to  the  court  and  one  that  can  never  be  adequately  dealt 
with  except  by  such  effective  co-operation  between  the  court  and 
the  organized  public  and  private  charity  of  the  city  as  will  keep 
the  competent  working  mother  at  home,  lighten  the  economic 
pressure  that  is  exploiting  the  child,  improve  the  neighborhood 
conditions  that  are  promoting  delinquency,  or  move  the  family 
to  safer  quarters.  Until  this  co-operation  is  perfected  the  court 
must  remain  handicapped. 

There  are  many  cases  in  which  the  court,  recognizing  the 
good  intentions  of  the  family,  puts  the  child  on  probation  without 
having  the  resources  to  alter  the  conditions  which  are  really  re- 
sponsible for  the  child's  presence  before  the  judge.  Sooner  or 
later,  however,  because  of  these  conditions,  the  child  is  returned  to 
the  court  and  committed  to  an  institution,  while  the  family  cir- 
cumstances remain  unchanged.  After  a  brief  time  he  is  returned 
to  the  delinquency-promoting  conditions  from  which  he  originally 

171 


THE    DELINQUENT   CHILD    AND   THE    HOME 

came,  is  later  returned  again  to  the  court,  returned  to  an  in- 
stitution, returned  again  to  his  family,  and  then  the  vicious 
circle  begins  all  over,  not  only  for  the  boy  but  for  his  younger 
brothers  and  sisters.  The  court  returns  the  child  to  the  home, 
because  the  essential  Tightness  of  the  intentions  of  the  family  is 
recognized  and  because  the  only  alternative  to  the  home  is  an 
overcrowded  institution,  which  may  soon  turn  the  child  out  to 
make  room  for  the  "next  case."  It  is  not  a  choice  between  the  poor 
home  and  the  ideal  institution,  but  between  the  home  that  seems 
bad  and  the  institution  that  is  surely  worse. 

In  a  third  class  of  families,  which  presents  a  still  more  dif- 
ficult problem  to  the  court,  there  is  no  question  of  economic  pres- 
sure or  unlooked-for  misfortune.  In  these  families  the  child  is 
being  sacrificed  or  exploited  because  his  needs  either  are  not  prop- 
erly understood  or  are  wilfully  disregarded.  Unlike  the  families 
in  the  first  class,  these  neither  seek  nor  welcome  but  rather  resent 
the  relationship  of  the  court  to  the  child;  unlike  the  second  class, 
the  spiritual  rather  than  the  material  conditions  are  unfavorable. 
The  father  while  not  "  brutal"  is  often  extremely  severe,  the  mother 
too  little  concerned  with  the  care  or  training  of  the  children.  Here 
the  sense  of  parental  right  is  strong  and  the  court  is  regarded  as  a 
trespasser  and  interloper.  In  dealing  with  families  of  this  type, 
the  coercive  power  of  the  court  is  exercised  over  the  parents  rather 
than  over  the  child.  While  no  poverty  exists,  there  are  often 
crowded  conditions  of  living  because  lodgers  are  taken  either  to 
share  the  rent  or  to  add  to  the  fund  for  purchasing  the  house.  In 
short,  homes  of  this  type  are  uncomfortable  for  the  child  and  often 
unsafe.  Here  the  chief  function  of  the  probation  officer  is  to 
expound  to  the  parents  the  standard  to  be  maintained  for  the  child 
and  if  possible  to  enforce  that  standard. 

A  fourth  class,  though  not  a  large  one,  is  interesting  and 
should  be  noticed.  It  includes  families  again  not  poor  nor  out- 
wardly degraded,  whose  homes  seem  comfortable,  so  that  it  is 
not  easy  for  the  court  to  contemplate  removing  the  child.  There 
often  are  marital  difficulties, — occasionally  divorce;  or  a  diseased 
spot  in  the  family  life  may  be  discovered;  but  sometimes  the 
character  of  the  delinquency  and  the  fact  that  none  of  the  children 
— or  none  of  the  girls  in  one  case — escape  the  taint,  is  the  chief 

172 


THE    COURT    AND   THE    DELINQUENT    FAMILY 

evidence  of  a  degeneracy  evidently  far  gone  in  the  family  life, 
which  is  like  a  fruit  of  fair  exterior  but  rotten  at  the  core.  For 
children  from  homes  such  as  these  little  can  be  done  except  to 
place  them  in  institutions  and  postpone  the  day  of  their  complete 
undoing.  In  the  treatment  of  such  cases,  until  further  light  is 
thrown  on  the  subject  by  the  researches  in  biological  and  psycho- 
logical laboratories,  the  court  must  act  feebly  and  on  the  whole 
blindly. 

Finally  there  remains  the  class  in  which  are  found  only  the 
dregs  of  family  life,  and  here  action  must  be  sure  as  it  should  be 
swift.  For  here  are  found  drunkenness,  immorality,  crime,  filthy 
and  degraded  homes — homes  below  any  acceptable  standards  of 
cleanliness,  of  decency,  and  of  competence.  In  these  homes  the 
court  finds  only  opposition  in  the  intentions  of  the  family  and 
insurmountable  difficulties  in  the  way  of  maintaining  right  con- 
ditions of  living.  Here  the  right  of  family  life  has  been  forfeited 
and  that  privilege  should  be  denied  by  the  court.  As  a  major 
operation  is  undertaken  by  a  surgeon,  amputation  should  be 
resorted  to  in  these  cases  and  the  child  promptly  and  perma- 
nently removed  from  the  contaminating  influences. 

Thus  it  may  be  said  that  so  far  as  the  family  problem  before 
the  court  is  concerned,  the  homes  fall,  broadly  speaking,  into  two 
large  divisions,  the  one  containing  those  homes  in  which  the  care  of 
the  court  can  be  exercised  in  co-operation  with  the  family,  the 
other  those  in  which  it  can  be  exercised  only  in  opposition  to  the 
wishes  of  the  family,  and  in  which  the  family  is  antagonistic  to  the 
standards  that  the  community  has  set  for  its  children. 

From  this  it  is  evident  that  there  must  be  developed  a  much 
finer  discrimination  in  judging  of  the  rights  of  parents.  To  the 
competent  parent  all  aid  should  be  given;  of  the  competent  parent 
the  efficient  performance  of  parental  duties  should  be  demanded. 
Over  the  inefficient,*  careful  supervision  should  be  exercised.  To 
the  well-intentioned,  aid  should  be  rendered  by  the  use  of  such 
agencies  as  the  school  nurse,  the  visiting  housekeeper,  the  truant 

*  In  the  future,  cases  of  positive  parental  wrong  or  gross  incompetence  can 
be  dealt  with  under  the  wise  statute  which  supplements  the  jurisdiction  granted  to 
the  juvenile  court  by  the  added  power  of  the  municipal  and  circuit  court  over  those 
who  contribute  to  the  child's  wrongdoing.  (111.  Rev.  Stat.,  chap.  38,  sec.  42hb.) 

173 


THE    DELINQUENT   CHILD   AND   THE    HOME 

officer,  and  the  sanitary  inspector;  to  the  degraded  parent  no  con- 
cessions should  be  made.* 

When  there  are  evidences  of  drunkenness  or  vicious  and  im- 
moral living,  complete  separation  is  probably  the  only  safeguard. 
To  accomplish  this,  the  machinery  of  the  court  for  dealing  with 
dependent  children  should  be  rendered  strong  enough  and  skilful 
enough  to  discover  conditions  unfavorable  to  child  life  at  a  very 
early  period,  and  the  staff  of  probation  officers  should  be  efficient, 
well  equipped,  and  thoroughly  grounded  in  the  principles  of  relief 
and  of  sound  family  life. 

After  such  an  analysis,  attention  need  not  be  called  again  to 
the  difficulty  and  delicacy  of  the  task  set  before  the  court,  nor  need 
reference  be  made  to  the  dignity,  insight,  intelligence,  patience, 
and  thoroughness  that  should  characterize  its  agents.  When  one 
compares  the  equipment  of  the  court  with  its  undertaking,  it  is 
not  surprising  if  the  court  has  in  some  respects  failed  of  perfect 
service.  But  however  much,  because  of  inadequate  equipment,  it 
may  have  fallen  short  in  other  respects,  it  has  not  failed  as  a  means 
of  exhibiting  the  wrongs  of  childhood,  nor  need  its  services  in  this 
capacity  be  limited  to  Chicago  alone;  for  after  all,  if  the  needs 
of  neglected  children  in  Chicago  are  made  clear  the  needs  of 
neglected  children  everywhere  can  be  better  understood. 

In  studying  the  treatment  of  delinquent  children  in  Illinois, 
it  becomes  apparent  that  the  juvenile  court  should  be  strengthened 
in  its  relation  to  other  courts  that  it  may  take  cognizance  directly 
or  through  the  probation  officers  of  charges  brought  against  chil- 
dren everywhere  and  of  other  controversies,  of  whatsoever  kind, 
affecting  their  interests  and  well-being.f  When  that  is  accom- 
plished we  shall  have  in  fact,  as  we  have  long  had  in  name,  a  parens 
patriae,  an  agent  through  whom  the  parenthood  of  the  community 
can  be  brought  to  bear  upon  the  orphaned  condition  of  any  needy 
boy  or  girl. 

*  For  an  admirable  discussion  of  this  difficult  question  see  Judge  Pinckney's 
testimony,  Appendix  II,  pp.  237-238  and  245. 

t  A  large  number  of  cases  involving  children,  for  example,  are  heard  in  the 
municipal  and  circuit  courts  under  various  statutes,  the  most  important  of  which 
is  the  "contributing  to  dependency  of  children"  statute  which  makes  it  a  misde- 
meanor for  anyone  to  help  in  any  way  to  render  a  child  dependent,  neglected,  or 
delinquent.  (111.  Rev.  Stat.,  chap.  38,  sec.  42hb.) 

174 


THE    COURT   AND  THE    DELINQUENT   FAMILY 

The  suggestion  may  not  be  out  of  place  here  that  any  real 
substitute  for  the  care  of  the  natural  parents  will  contain  the  ele- 
ments of  both  the  paternal  and  maternal  character,  and  will 
involve,  when  the  machinery  of  the  court  is  fully  developed,  the 
representation  of  the  maternal  and  the  paternal  in  the  final 
decision  as  well  as  in  the  supervision  of  the  child  under  pro- 
bation. It  is  obvious  to  any  thoughtful  student  of  the  problem 
under  consideration,  that  eventually  men  and  women  acting  to- 
gether will  have  to  arrive  at  a  final  decision  as  to  what  is  to  be  done 
with  each  child,  and  will  have  to  be  jointly  entrusted  with  the 
control  of  the  children  from  day  to  day.  One  can  but  remember 
that  the  community  has  been  very  slow  in  giving  the  mother 
"equal  powers,  rights,  and  duties"  with  the  father  in  respect  to 
their  children*  and  in  observing  that,  though  the  large  majority  of 
probation  officers  are  women,  the  final  disposition  of  the  case  lies 
wholly  in  the  hands  of  a  man.  Nor  can  one  fail  to  realize  that, 
even  when  the  judge  is  a  genius  at  understanding  the  child,  or 
devotedly  kind  and  genuinely  sympathetic,  there  is  often  the  need 
not  merely  of  advice  from  a  woman,  but  of  deciding  power  exer- 
cised by  a  woman. f 

In  the  chapters  of  this  book,  attention  has  been  called  to  the 
need  of  strengthening  the  child  labor  law  and  some  other  laws  for 
the  protection  of  children.  More  important  however  than  new  legis- 
lation is  the  enforcement  of  such  laws  as  have  already  been  passed. 
Orders  recently  issued  by  a  Chief  of  Police  to  the  members  of 
his  forcej  in  which  he  exhorts  them  to  watch  for  violations  of  those 

*  Illinois  Revised  Statutes,  chap.  64,  sec.  4. 

f  In  connection  with  this  apparently  radical  statement  it  is  of  interest  that 
among  the  recent  recommendations  by  Judge  Pinckney  is  that  of  a  "woman  judge 
to  pass  upon  and  hear  in  private  the  life  histories  of  unfortunate  young  girls." 
Chicago  Record-Herald,  April  25,  1912. 

%  It  seems  worth  while  to  reproduce  here  orders  issued  by  the  Chief  of  Police 
of  Chicago  at  the  request  and  suggestion  of  the  Superintendent  of  the  Juvenile 
Protective  League,  May  13,  1909. 

WATCH  FOR  VIOLATIONS  OF  LAWS  GOVERNING  THE  PROTECTION  OF  MINORS 
Office  of  the  General  Superintendent  of  Police 

Chicago,  May  13,  1909. 
To  all  Members  of  the  Department: 

Your  attention  is  called  to  the  following  communication  from  the  Juvenile 
Protective  League: 

(i)  Officers  will  watch  pool  rooms  with  reference  to  violations  of  Section  168 
of  the  Revised  Municipal  Code  of  Chicago,  which  provides  that  billiard  and  pool- 

175 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 

sections  of  the  municipal  code  which  relate  to  the  protection  of  mi- 
nors, and  to  regard  themselves  as  guardians  not  of  the  law,  but '  'of  the 
children  who  go  upon  the  streets,  into  stores  or  public  places  unattended," 
indicate  an  extraordinary  realization  of  the  necessity  of  a  new  kind 
of  protection  which  will  make  all  public  places  safe  and  decent. 

A  strong  plea  is  presented  for  the  adaptation  of  the  school 
curriculum  to  the  actual  demands  of  industrial  and  commercial 

room  keepers  shall  not  allow  minors  under  18  years  of  age  to  play  on  their  tables 
or  be  or  remain  upon  their  premises.  Upon  the  first  offense,  you  will  warn  the 
proprietors  against  further  violations.  You  will  arrest  any  proprietor  guilty  of  a 
subsequent  offense,  or  make  complaint  to  the  prosecuting  attorney,  order  the  boys 
off  the  premises  and  secure  evidence  for  prosecution. 

(2)  Officers  will  watch  for  violations  of  Section  1352  of  the  Revised  Municipal 
Code  of  Chicago,  which  provides  that  intoxicating  liquors  shall  not  be  sold,  given 
away  or  delivered  to  minors.     Upon  seeing  a  child  leaving  a  saloon  with  intoxi- 
cating liquor  of  any  kind,  you  will  take  the  name  and  address  of  the  child,  ascertain 
whether  or  not  the  liquor  was  got  in  the  saloon  and  if  it  was,  warn  the  proprietor  or 
bartender  against  further  violations.     For  a  subsequent  offense  you  will  arrest  the 
guilty  person  or  make  complaint  to  the  prosecuting  attorney  and  secure  evidence 
for  prosecution. 

(3)  Officers  will  watch  tobacco  stores  with  reference  to  violations  of  Section 
1439  of  the  Revised  Municipal  Code  of  Chicago,  which  prohibits  the  selling  or 
furnishing  of  tobacco  to  minors  under  16  years  of  age,  except  on  the  written  order 
of  the  parents.     You  will  take  the  names  and  addresses  of  such  children  to  whom 
tobacco  is  furnished  and  upon  the  first  offense  warn  against  further  violations. 
Upon  any  subsequent  offense  you  will  arrest  the  guilty  persons  or  make  complaint 
to  the  prosecuting  attorney.     You  will  prevent  persons  under  14  years  of  age  smok- 
ing cigarettes  on  the  streets  and  in  public  places  in  violation  of  Section  272  of  the 
Criminal  Code. 

(4)  The  officers  will  confiscate  all  slot  machines  whether  to  be  played  with 
pennies  or  coins  of  larger  denominations,  that  are  operated  to  be  played  upon  by 
children,  if  such  machines  are  devices  of  chance  in  violation  of  Section  912  of  the 
Revised  Municipal  Code  of  Chicago.     For  any  subsequent  offense  you  will  make 
arrests  or  make  complaint  to  the  prosecuting  attorney. 

(5)  Officers  will  prevent,  as  far  as  possible,  boys  and  girls  under  20  years  of 
age  entering  hotels,  flats,  rooming  houses  or  other  places  known  to  be  used  in  part 
or  exclusively  for  assignation  purposes. 

(6)  Officers  will  bear  in  mind  that  they  are  the  guardians  of  children  who  go 
upon  the  streets,  into  stores  or  public  places  unattended.     You  will  watch  boys  and 
girls  while  they  are  upon  the  streets  or  in  the  stores,  and  especially  when  they  appear 
to  be  in  suspicious  or  dangerous  situations,  and  you  will  take  care  to  afford  them 
protection  against  abuse,  cruelty  or  danger. 

(7)  You  will  report  at  once  any  and  all  homes  found  by  you  or  brought  to 
your  attention  wherein  there  are  conditions  tending  to  contribute  to  the  delinquency 
or  dependency  of  the  children,  whether  such  conditions  be  the  drunkenness,  abuse, 
cruelty  or  neglect  of  the  parents,  sickness,  lack  of  food  or  heat,  or  the  insanitary  con- 
dition of  the  house. 

Officers  will  carefully  read  and  follow  the  above  instructions. 

(Signed)  GEORGE  M.  SHIPPY 
General  Superintendent  of  Police 
The  Daily  Bulletin,  Department  of  Police,  City  of  Chicago 

May  14,  1909 

176 


THE   COURT   AND   THE    DELINQUENT   FAMILY 

life,  the  multiplication  of  uses  of  the  school  buildings,  the  prolonga- 
tion of  the  school  year  by  means  of  vacation  schools,  the  establish- 
ment of  continuation  schools,  the  further  development  of  indus- 
trial and  trade  training,  and  the  perfection  of  the  machinery  for 
apprehending  all  truant  children  and  securing  their  regular  pres- 
ence at  school,  as  well  as  the  working  out  of  some  plan  by  which 
the  connection  between  their  school  life  and  their  working  life 
may  be  economically  and  intelligently  made. 

And  finally  it  may  be  said  that  the  most  important  lesson  to 
be  learned  from  any  study  of  the  juvenile  court  in  its  relation  to 
the  delinquent  child  is  that  the  only  way  of  curing  delinquency 
is  to  prevent  it.  The  juvenile  court  cannot  work  miracles  unaided. 
It  cries  out  to  the  community  for  the  co-operation  of  all  its  citi- 
zens in  removing  the  conditions  which  are  feeding  into  the  court 
thousands  of  delinquent  children  every  year.  As  the  community! 
comes  to  understand  the  obligation  which  rests  upon  it  to  abolishl 
the  causes  of  delinquency,  one  may  hope  that  new  methods  of  con- 
servation will  be  devised  to  take  the  place  of  the  old  waste  of 
child  life.  By  such  means  may  be  builded  a  stronghold  of  good 
citizenship  and  noble,  competent  living.  And  when  that  strong- 
hold shall  have  been  erected,  into  it  will  be  found  builded  the  lives 
of  the  neglected  children,  the  little  strangers,  the  orphans,  the  de- 
graded, poor,  and  ignorant  ones,  who  have  passed  in  and  out 
before  the  judge  of  the  delinquent  children  in  Chicago;  and  through 
whose  wrongs,  laid  bare  by  the  machinery  of  the  juvenile  court, 
greater  wisdom  and  greater  gentleness  have  been  acquired. 


177 


APPENDICES 


APPENDIX  I 

LEGAL  PROBLEMS  INVOLVED  IN  THE  ESTABLISHMENT 
OF  THE  JUVENILE  COURT* 

BY  JULIAN  W.  MACK 
Formerly  Judge  of  the  Juvenile  Court  of  Cook  County,  Illinois 

THE  legal  problems  growing  out  of  the  establishment  of  the 
juvenile  court  have  given  rise  to  discussion  and  to  some 
differences  of  opinion  from  the  standpoint  of  constitutional  law. 

It  is  desirable  first  to  inquire  into  the  distinctively  novel 
features  characteristic  of  the  court  and  to  determine  whether  their 
novelty  is  real  or  perhaps  more  apparent  than  real.  It  is  a  common 
conception  that  the  state  is  the  higher  or  the  ultimate  parent  of 
all  of  the  dependents  within  its  borders.  It  is  well  known,  too, 
that  whatever  may  have  been  the  historical  origin  of  the  practice, 
for  over  two  centuries,  as  evidenced  by  judgments  both. of  the 
House  of  Lords  and  of  the  Chancellors,  the  courts  of  chancery  in 
England  have  exercised  jurisdiction  for  the  protection  of  the  un- 
fortunate child. 

It  was  believed  for  a  time  that  this  jurisdiction  could  be  ac- 
quired only  in  case  the  infant  had  property.  This  doctrine  has  been 
rejected  by  the  English  court  and  was  declared  in  1892  to  be  wholly 
unsupported  by  either  principle  or  authority.! 

*  Acknowledgments  are  due  for  aid  in  the  preparation  of  this  paper  to  Mr. 
Bernard  Flexner  of  the  Kentucky  bar,  for  the  compilation  of  many  authorities, 
and  to  Professor  Ernst  Freund  of  the  University  of  Chicago  Law  School,  for  the 
summary  of  the  law  relating  to  parental  obligation  under  the  Common  Law. 

t  North  J.,  in  re  McGrath,  L.  R.  1892,  2  Ch.  496.  In  re  Spence,  2  Phillips 
247,  Lord  Chancellor  Cottenham  said:  "I  have  no  doubt  about  the  jurisdiction. 
The  cases  in  which  the  court  interferes  on  behalf  of  the  infants  are  not  confined  to 
those  in  which  there  is  property.  This  court  interferes  for  the  protection  of  infants, 
qua  infants,  by  virtue  of  the  prerogative  which  belongs  to  the  Crown  as  parens  pa- 
trice,  and  the  exercise  of  which  is  delegated  to  the  great  seal."  Again  in  Brown  v. 
Collins,  Mr.  Justice  Kay  said:  "Undoubtedly  we  use  the  words  'wards  of  court'  in 
such  a  case  in  rather  a  special  sense.  In  one  sense  all  British  subjects  who  are  in- 
fants are  wards  of  court  because  they  are  subject  to  that  sort  of  parental  jurisdic- 

'3  l8l 


THE   DELINQUENT    CHILD   AND   THE   HOME 

And  the  wellnigh  unanimous  doctrine  of  the  American 
courts  has  been  that  parents'  rights  are  always  "  subject  to  control 
by  the  court  of  chancery  when  the  best  interests  of  the  child  de- 
mand it."* 

Support  was  found  for  the  contention  that  a  property  interest 
is  essential  to  jurisdiction  in  the  fact  that,  until  comparatively 
recent  times,  the  aid  of  the  court  in  England  was  seldom  sought, 
except  when  the  child  had  an  independent  fortune;  but,  as  was 
said  by  Lord  Eldon,  whose  decree  in  the  Wellesley  casef  was 
affirmed  by  the  House  of  Lords  :| 

"  It  is  not  from  any  want  of  jurisdiction  that  it  does  not  act, 
but  from  a  want  of  means  to  exercise  its  jurisdiction  because  the 
court  cannot  take  upon  itself  the  maintenance  of  all  the  children 
in  the  Kingdom.  It  can  exercise  this  jurisdiction  fully  and  prac- 
tically only  where  it  has  the  means  of  applying  property  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  infant." 

In  the  supplying  of  this  lack  through  public  grants  of  money 
for  institutions  for  the  support,  maintenance,  and  education  of 
the  children  and  in  the  enforcement  of  parental  obligations,  are 
found  the  constructive  features  of  the  legislation  establishing 
the  court  and  of  other  legislation  upon  which  its  administration 
depends. 

The  common  law  knew  certain  parental  obligations  which 
are  usually  enumerated  as  the  duty  of  maintenance,  of  protection, 

tion  which  is  entrusted  continuously  to  the  Courts  of  Chancery  Division.    It  may 
be  exercised,  as  it  has  been  in  many  cases,  whether  they  have  property  or  not." 

See  in  re  Flynn,  2  De  G.  &  Sm.  457;  Brown  v.  Collins,  L.  R.  25  Ch.  D.  56 
In  re  Scanlan,  L.  R.  40  Ch.  D.  200.  In  re  Nevin,  L.  R.  1891,  2  Ch.  299;  Barnardo 
v.  McHugh,  L.  R.  1891,  A.  C.  388.  In  re  W.,  L.  R.  1907,  2  Ch.  557.  In  re  H's 
Settlement,  L.  R.  1909,  2  Ch.  260.  Several  of  these  cases  involved  the  question 
of  the  religious  education  of  the  child. 

*  Miner  v.  Miner,  1 1  111.  43  (1849). 

"The  power  of  the  Court  of  Chancery  to  interfere  with  and  control  not  only 
the  estates  but  the  persons  of  all  minors  within  the  limits  of  its  jurisdiction,  is  of  very 
ancient  origin  and  cannot  now  be  questioned.  This  is  a  power  which  must  exist 
necessarily  in  a  republican  government.  A  jurisdiction  thus  extensive  and  liable, 
as  we  have  seen,  to  enter  into  the  domestic  relations  of  every  family  in  the  com- 
munity, is  necessarily  of  a  very  delicate  and  even  of  a  very  embarrassing  nature; 
and  yet  its  exercise  is  indispensable  in  every  well  governed  society;  it  is  indis- 
pensably necessary  to  protect  the  persons  and  preserve  the  property  of  those  who 
are  unable  to  protect  and  take  care  of  themselves."  Cowls  v.  Cowls,  2  Oilman 
(111.)  435  (-846). 

t2  Russ.  i  (1827).  Ja  Bligh  N.  S.  124. 

182 


ESTABLISHMENT  OF  JUVENILE   COURT 

and  of  education.*  The  last  named,  however,  was  admittedly  a 
moralf  and  not  a  legal  duty,  while  the  second  was  sufficient  to 
serve  as  a  defense  in  case  of  assault  committed  in  defense  of  the 
child's  person  or  to  reduce  murder  to  manslaughter  if  committed 
from  the  same  motive. 

With  reference  to  the  duty  of  support,  it  may  be  said  that 
probably  by  the  common  law  of  England  the  father  was  under  a 
legal  obligation  to  provide  for  the  support  of  his  child  of  tender 
years.  This  is  the  rule  stated  by  English  text  writers  and  it  may 
be  deduced  from  the  following  propositions  which  are  established 
by  English  cases: 

(1)  The  father  who  neglected  to  provide  for  his  tender  child, 
thereby  exposing  the  child  to  starvation,  was  liable  to  criminal 
prosecution. J 

(2)  If  a  child  had  independent  means  of  support  the  father 
was  yet  under  a  primary  obligation  to  provide  for  the  child's  sup- 
port out  of  his  own  means,  and  a  special  order  had  to  be  obtained 
from  the  court  to  allow  the  father  to  draw  upon  the  child's  means. 
It  is  true  that  the  practice  became  gradually  settled  to  reimburse 
the  father  for  expenses  incurred  for  his  child,  but  this  seems  to  have 
been  a  matter  of  practice  and  not  of  absolute  right. § 

(3)  It  is  held  in  England  that  a  wife,  deserted  by  her  husband, 
may  charge  her  husband  not  only  for  expenses  incurred  for  herself, 
but  also  for  those  incurred  for  her  minor  children.  ||     This  presup- 
poses that  the  father  is  liable  fer  the  support  of  the  child  as  well  as 
of  the  wife. 

Irrespective  of  authority,  it  would  also  have  to  be  assumed 
that  the  law  would  not  give  the  father  an  absolute  right  to  the 
earnings  of  the  child  if  the  father  were  not  under  an  obligation  for 
the  maintenance  of  the  child,  and  the  right  of  the  father  to  the 
earnings  of  the  child  is  so  well  established  that  authorities  in 
support  of  that  right  need  not  be  cited.** 

On  the  other  hand  it  should  be  considered  (i)  that  there 

*  Tiffany:  The  Law  of  Persons  and  Domestic  Relations,  p.  254. 

Schouler:  Domestic  Relations,  Fifth  Edition,  sec.  251. 

f  See  Collins  v.  Cory,  17  L.  T.  242,  (1901). 

|  Friend's  Case,  Russell  and  Ryan  20. 

§  ;  Brown  Chancery  Cases  [387];  6,  Ves.  425,  2  M.  &  K.  439. 

||  3  Q.  B.  559.  **  Schouler:  Domestic  Relations,  Fifth  Edition,  sec.  252. 

I83 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

seems  to  be  no  English  case  where  the  father  was  held  upon  an 
implied  contract  to  reimburse  a  stranger  who  had  made  the  pro- 
vision for  a  tender  child  which  the  father  failed  to  make;  (2)  that 
it  is  clear  that  the  father  had  a  right  to  disinherit  his  child  and 
leave  him  to  the  parish.*  It  must  also  be  presumed  that  the  father 
had  a  right  to  emancipate  his  child  if  he  had  advanced  beyond  the 
tender  age,  and  throw  him  upon  his  own  resources,  thus  waiving 
the  right  to  the  child's  "earnings,  but  on  the  other  hand  also  being 
relieved  from  the  duty  to  support  the  child. 

It  must  also  be  considered  that  at  a  relatively  early  period,f 
at  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  statutory  provision 
was  made  for  compulsory  support  of  a  child  by  a  parent  where  the 
child  would  otherwise  have  been  a  charge  upon  the  parish,  and 
that  this  remedy  would  be  likely  to  take  the  place  of  a  common 
law  remedy  in  many  cases.  There  seems  to  be  no  authority  clearly 
showing  what  the  common  law  was  before  the  enactment  of  this 
statute,  and  it  is  very  natural  that  cases  of  this  kind  should  not 
have  come  before  the  higher  courts. 

From  this  statement  it  is  evident  that  admitting  a  legal  duty 
of  maintenance  and  even  perhaps  of  education,  the  sanctions  were 

]so  slight  as  to  render  the  father  wellnigh  irresponsible,  while  he 
possessed  the  right  to  the  custody  of  the  child's  person  and  to 

•  appropriate  the  child's  earnings.  There  has  been,  then,  in  the 
past,  no  effective  control  on  the  part  of  the  community  over  the 
exercise  of  parental  rights  and  the  performance  of  parental  duties, 
especially  by  those  of  limited  financial  means.  And,  at  the  present 
time,  most  of  the  children  who  come  before  the  court  are  naturally 
the  children  of  the  poor.  In  many  cases  the  parents  are  foreigners, 
frequently  unable  to  speak  English.  These  poor  people  have  not 
been  able  to  give  their  offspring  the  opportunities  and  supervision 
that  many  children  enjoy.  They  often  do  not  understand  Ameri- 
can methods  and  views,  the  amount  of  education  demanded  by 
law  or  what  the  modern  requirements  for  childhood  are.  In  many 
instances  the  interests  of  the  parents  are  apparently  in  conflict 
with  those  of  the  child.  False  testimonials  as  to  the  age  of  the 
child,  sworn  to  in  order  that  the  child  may  be  employed  very  young, 
when  his  earnings  seem  necessary  for  the  support  of  the  house- 

*  5  Ves.  p.  444.  f  L.  R.  Statutes  43  Eliz.  c.  2;  5  Geo.  I  c.  8. 

184 


ESTABLISHMENT   OF   JUVENILE    COURT 

hold,  evidence  this.  In  not  a  few  instances  where  the  parent  is  a 
victim  of  greed  or  of  degraded  habits  of  life,  his  interests  are  actually 
in  conflict  with  those  of  the  child.  Very  often,  however,  what 
they  need,  more  than  anything  else,  is  kindly  assistance  and  in- 
telligent counsel,  though  sometimes  there  is  necessity  of  forcing 
upon  their  attention  the  fact  that  the  interest  of  the  child  is  now  a 
matter  of  concern  to  the  state,  and  that  the  community  and  not 
the  parent  has  the  power  to  determine  when  the  interests  of  the 
child  are  being  ignored  or  inadequately  protected. 

The  juvenile  court,  inheriting  the  parental  powers  of  the 
court  of  chancery,  is  the  institution,  and  the  probation  officer  is 
the  agent,  through  whom  these  services  can  be  rendered  by  the 
community  to  the  weak,  the  ignorant,  the  greedy,  or  the  degraded 
parent.  These  tasks  are,  of  course,  of  a  most  delicate  and  difficult 
kind,  and  probation  officers  must  be  men  and  women  fitted  to  per- 
form them.  They  should  be  characterized  by  tact,  forbearance, 
and  sympathy  with  the  child,  as  well  as  by  a  full  appreciation  of 
the  difficulties  of  the  poorer  class,  and  especially  of  the  immigrants 
in  our  large  cities. 

It  should  be  noted,  too,  that  while  in  most  jurisdictions  the 
juvenile  court  laws  make  provision  for  the  dependent  as  well  as 
for  the  neglected,  the  truant,  and  the  delinquent  child,  some  of 
the  best  workers  in  this  field  have  objected  to  a  court  having  any- 
thing to  do  with  the  strictly  dependent  child,  the  child  whose 
parents  must  ask  assistance  merely  because  of  poverty  or  misfor- 
tune. If  friends  or  the  church  fail  to  supply  the  necessary  help 
and  the  aid  of  the  state  is  to  be  sought,  it  should  be  granted  through 
poor  law  or  relief  commissioners.  The  remedy  for  the  saddest 
cases  that  too  often  come  before  the  court,  the  dependent  children 
of  a  woman  suddenly  deprived  of  the  support  of  her  husband  by 
death  or  disease  and  unable  to  bear  her  heavy  burden  unaided,  is 
not  the  disintegration  of  the  family  through  the  adoption  or  board- 
ing out  of  the  children,  but  private  or  public  assistance  that  will 
enable  the  competent  and  worthy  mother  to  keep  her  family 
together. 

The  common  criminal  law  did  not  differentiate  between  the 
adult  and  the  minor  who  had  reached  the  age  of  criminal  responsi- 
bility— seven  at  common  law  and  in  some  of  our  states,  ten  in 

185 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

others,  with  a  chance  to  escape  up  to  twelve,  if  lacking  in  mental 
and  moral  maturity.  The  majesty  and  dignity  of  the  state  de- 
manded vindication  for  infractions  of  its  statute  from  both  alike. 
The  fundamental  thought  in  criminal  jurisprudence  was  not,  and 
in  most  jurisdictions  is  not,  reformation  of  the  criminal,  but  punish- 
ment; punishment  as  expiation  for  the  wrong;  punishment  as  a 
warning  to  other  possible  wrong-doers.  The  child  was  arrested, 
put  into  prison,  indicted  by  the  grand  jury,  tried  by  a  petit  jury, 
under  all  the  forms  and  technicalities  of  our  criminal  law,  with  the 
aim  of  ascertaining  whether  it  had  done  the  specific  act — nothing 
else — and  if  it  had,  then  of  visiting  the  punishment  of  the  state 
upon  it. 

It  is  true  that  during  the  last  century  ameliorating  influences 
mitigated  the  severity  of  the  old  regime;  in  the  last  fifty  years,  the 
reformatories  have  played  a  great  and  very  beneficent  part  in  deal- 
ing with  juvenile  offenders.  They  supplanted  the  penitentiary. 
In  them  the  endeavor  was  made,  while  punishing,  to  reform;  to 
educate  the  prisoner  so  that  when  his  time  should  have  expired  he 
could  go  out  into  the  world,  capable  at  least  of  making  an  honest 
living.  And,  in  the  course  of  time,  in  some  jurisdictions,  the  youths 
were  separated  from  the  older  offenders  in  stations,  jails,  and 
workhouses;  but  generally  in  this  country,  the  two  classes  were 
huddled  together.  What  was  the  result  of  it  all?  Instead  of  the 
state  training  its  bad  boys  so  as  to  make  of  them  decent  citizens, 
it  permitted  them  to  become  the  outlaws  and  outcasts  of  society; 
it  criminalized  them  by  the  very  methods  that  it  used  in  dealing 
with  them.  It  did  not  aim  to  find  out  what  the  accused's  history 
was,  what  his  heredity,  his  environment,  his  associations;  it  did 
not  ask  how  he  had  come  to  do  the  particular  act  which  had  brought 
him  before  the  court;  it  put  but  one  question,  "  Has  he  committed 
this  crime?"  Nor  did  it  inquire,  "What  is  the  best  thing  to  do  for 
this  lad?"  It  did  not  even  punish  him  in  a  manner  that  would 
tend  to  improve  him.  The  punishment  was  visited  in  proportion 
to  the  degree  of  wrongdoing  evidenced  by  the  single  act;  not  by 
the  needs  of  the  boy,  not  by  the  needs  of  the  state. 

And  when  some  good  women  in  a  great  city  saw  these  lads  of 
ten  and  twelve  and  fifteen  in  great  numbers  filling  the  county  jail, 
receiving  no  training  and  no  education,  mingling  with  the  adult 

1 86 


ESTABLISHMENT  OF   JUVENILE   COURT 

criminals,  the  harlots,  and  the  drunkards,  both  before  and  after 
trial,  being  daily  contaminated  physically  and  morally,  they  at 
first  secured  some  measure  of  segregation;  then  they  employed 
teachers  for  them  and  finally  they  influenced  the  board  of  educa- 
tion to  establish  a  public  school  in  the  house  of  correction.  Soon 
they  said  to  themselves,  "  If  this  is  good  work,  is  it  not  better  to 
keep  these  boys  and  girls  away  from  this  sort  of  a  place  altogether? 
Why  is  it  not  just  and  proper  to  treat  these  juvenile  offenders  as 
we  deal  with  the  neglected  children — as  a  wise  and  merciful  father 
handles  his  own  child  whose  errors  are  not  discovered  by  the  author- 
ities? Why  is  it  not  the  duty  of  the  state  instead  of  asking  merely 
whether  a  boy  or  a  girl  has  committed  a  specific  offense,  to  find 
out  what  he  is,  physically,  mentally,  morally,  and  then  if  it  learns 
that  he  is  treading  the  path  that  leads  to  criminality,  to  take  him 
in  charge,  not  so  much  to  punish  as  to  reform,  not  to  degrade  but 
to  uplift,  not  to  crush  but  to  develop,  to  make  him  not  a  criminal 
but  a  worthy  citizen." 

And  it  is  these  two  thoughts — the  thought  that  the  commu- 
nity is  the  final  arbiter  of  parental  rights  and  duties  and  the  thought 
that  the  child  who  has  begun  to  go  wrong,  who  is  incorrigible,  and 
has  broken  a  law  or  an  ordinance,  is  to  be  taken  in  hand  by  the 
state  not  as  an  enemy  but  as  a  protector,  as  the  ultimate  guardian, 
because  either  the  unwillingness  or  inability  of  the  natural  parents 
to  guide  the  child  toward  good  citizenship  has  compelled  the  inter- 
vention of  the  public  authorities;  it  is  these  principles,  to  some 
extent  theretofore  applied  in  Australia  and  a  few  American  states, 
which  have  been  fully  and  clearly  declared,  in  the  act  under  which 
the  Juvenile  Court  of  Cook  County,  Illinois,  was  opened  in  Chicago 
on  July  i,  1899,  the  Hon.  R.  S.  Tuthill  presiding.  Colorado  fol- 
lowed soon  after,  and  since  that  time  similar  legislation  has  been 
adopted  in  most  American  jurisdictions,  as  well  as  in  Great  Britain, 
Ireland,  Canada,  and  the  Australian  colonies. 

Such  legislation  has  often  seemed  very  radical. 

"There  was  a  time  in  the  history  of  this  House  when  a  bill 
of  this  kind  would  have  been  treated  as  a  most  revolutionary 
measure,  and  half  a  century  ago,  if  such  a  measure  had  been  in- 
troduced, it  would  have  been  said  that  the  British  constitution  was 
being  undermined,"  exclaimed  the  Lord  Advocate  of  Scotland,  in 

187 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

the  course  of  the  debate  on  the  sweeping  reformation  and  con- 
solidation of  the  laws  relating  to  children,  called  the  Children's 
Charter,  which  became  effective  April  i,  1909.*  In  continental 
Europe  and  also  in  Asia,  the  American  juvenile  courts  have  been 
the  object  of  the  most  careful  study,  and  in  these  countries  either 
by  parliamentary  or  administrative  measures,  similar  courts  ha^e 
been  established  or  at  least  some  of  their  guiding  principles  en- 
forced. 

Juvenile  court  legislation  in  dealing  with  delinquent  children 
has  assumed  two  aspects. 

In  Great  Britain,  New  York,  and  a  few  other  jurisdictions, 
the  protection  is  accomplished  by  suspending  sentence  and  releas- 
ing the  child  under  the  care  of  a  probation  officer,  or,  in  case  of 
removal  from  the  home,  of  sending  it  to  a  school  instead  of  to  a 
jail  or  penitentiary.  The  criminal  proceeding  remains,  however. 
The  child  is  charged  with  the  commission  of  a  definite  offense,  of 
which  it  must  be  found  either  guilty  or  not  guilty.  If  not  guilty 
of  the  one  certain  act,  it  is  discharged,  however  much  it  may  need 
care  or  supervision.  If  guilty,  it  is  then  dealt  with,  but  as  a 
criminal.  And  this  would  seem  to  be  true  even  under  the  New 
York  statute  of  June  5,  1909,  which  provides  that: 

"A  child  of  more  than  seven  and  less  than  sixteen  years  of 
age,  who  shall  commit  any  act  or  omission,  which,  if  committed  by 
an  adult,  would  be  a  crime  not  punishable  by  death  or  life  imprison- 
ment, shall  not  be  deemed  guilty  of  any  crime,  but  of  juvenile  de- 
linquency only.  .  .  .  Any  child  charged  with  any  act  or  omis- 
sion which  may  render  him  guilty  of  juvenile  delinquency  shall  be 
dealt  with  in  the  same  manner  as  now  is  or  may  hereafter  be  pro- 
vided in  the  case  of  adults  charged  with  the  same  act  or  omission 
except  as  specially  provided  heretofore  in  the  case  of  children  under 
the  age  of  sixteen  years." 

This  would  seem  to  effectuate  merely  a  change  in  the  name  of 
every  crime  or  offense  from  that  by  which  it  was  theretofore  known, 
to  the  crime  of  juvenile  delinquency.  Beyond  question,  much  good 
may  be  accomplished  under  such  legislation,  dependent  upon  the 
spirit  in  which  it  is  carried  out,  particularly  if,  as  the  English  act 

*  Hansard  Parliamentary  Debates,  4th  series,  v.  186,  p.  1251.  L.  R.  Statutes 
7  Ed.  vii. 

1 88 


ESTABLISHMENT   OF   JUVENILE   COURT 

provides,  the  conviction  should  not  be  regarded  as  a  conviction  of 
felony  for  the  purpose  of  any  of  the  disqualifications  hitherto  at- 
tached to  felony. 

But  in  Illinois,  and  following  the  lead  of  Illinois,  in  most 
jurisdictions,  the  form  of  procedure  is  totally  different,  and  wisely 
so.  It  would  seem  to  be  obvious  that,  if  the  common  law  could 
fix  the  age  of  criminal  responsibility  at  seven,  and  if  the  legislature 
could  advance  that  age  to  ten  or  twelve,  it  can  also  raise  it  to  six- 
teen or  seventeen  or  eighteen;  and  that  is  what  in  some  measure 
has  been  done.  Under  most  of  the  juvenile  court  laws,  the  child 
under  the  designated  age  is  to  be  proceeded  against  as  a  criminal 
only  when  in  the  judgment  of  the  judge  of  the  juvenile  court, 
the  interests  of  the  state  and  of  the  child  require  that  this  be 
done. 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  the  language  of  the  law  should 
be  explicit  in  order  to  negative  the  jurisdiction  of  the  criminal 
courts  in  the  first  instance.  In  the  absence  of  such  express  pro- 
vision the  supreme  court  of  New  Hampshire  recently  upheld  a 
criminal  conviction.*  On  the  other  hand  the  supreme  court  of 
Louisiana  has  decided  that  a  criminal  proceeding  against  one 
within  the  age  limit  must  be  quashed  and  the  case  transferred  to 
the  juvenile  court. f 

To  get  away  from  the  notion  that  the  child  is  to  be  dealt  with 
as  a  criminal ;  to  save  it  from  the  brand  of  criminality,  the  brand 
that  sticks  to  it  for  life;  to  take  it  in  hand  and  instead  of  first 
stigmatizing  and  then  reforming  it,  to  protect  it  from  the  stigma; 
this  is  the  work  which  is  now  being  accomplished  among  the  greater 
number  of  the  delinquent  children,  through  the  court  that  repre- 
sents the  parens  patrice  power  of  the  state, — the  court  of  chancery. 
Proceedings  are  brought  to  have  a  guardian  or  representative  of 
the  state  appointed  to  look  after  the  child,  to  have  the  state  inter- 
vene between  the  natural  parent  and  the  child,  because  the  latter 
needs  it  as  evidenced  by  some  of  its  acts,  and  because  the  parent 
is  either  unwilling  or  unable  to  train  it  properly. 

Objection  has  been  made  from  time  to  time  that  this  is  never- 
theless a  criminal  proceeding,  and  that  therefore  the  child  is  en- 

*  State  v.  Burt,  71  Atlantic  Report  30  (1908). 
f  State  v.  Reed,  49  Southern  Reporter  3  (1909). 
189 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

titled  to  a  trial  by  jury  and  to  all  the  constitutional  rights  that 
hedge  about  the  criminal. 

The  supreme  courts  of  several  states  have  well  answered  this 
objection.  The  supreme  court  of  Pennsylvania  has  stated,  that: 

"To  save  a  child  from  becoming  a  criminal  or  from  continu- 
ing in  a  career  of  crime,  to  end  in  maturer  years  in  public  punish- 
ment and  disgrace,  the  legislature  surely  may  provide  for  the  salva- 
tion of  such  a  child,  if  its  parents  or  guardian  be  unable  or  unwilling 
to  do  so,  by  bringing  it  into  one  of  the  courts  of  the  state  without 
any  process  at  all,  for  the  purpose  of  subjecting  it  to  the  state's 
guardianship  and  protection. 

"The  action  is  not  for  the  trial  of  a  child  charged  with  a 
crime,  but  is  mercifully  to  save  it  from  such  an  ordeal,  with  the 
prison  or  penitentiary  in  its  wake,  if  the  child's  own  good  and  the 
best  interests  of  the  state  justify  such  salvation.  Whether  the 
child  deserves  to  be  saved  by  the  state  is  no  more  a  question  for  a 
jury  than  whether  the  father,  if  able  to  save  it,  ought  to  save  it. 
The  act  is  but  an  exercise  by  the  state  of  its  supreme  power  over 
the  welfare  of  its  children,  a  power  under  which  it  can  take  a  child 
from  its  father,  and  let  it  go  where  it  will,  without  committing  it 
to  any  guardianship  or  any  institution,  if  the  welfare  of  the  child, 
taking  its  age  into  consideration,  can  be  thus  best  promoted. 

"The  design  is  not  punishment,  nor  the  restraint  imprison- 
ment, any  more  than  is  the  wholesome  restraint  which  a  parent 
exercises  over  his  child.  The  severity  in  either  case  must  neces- 
sarily be  tempered  to  meet  the  necessities  of  that  particular  situa- 
tion. There  is  no  probability,  in  the  proper  administration  of  the 
law,  of  the  child's  liberty  being  unduly  invaded.  Every  statute 
which  is  designed  to  give  protection,  care,  and  training  to  children, 
as  a  needed  substitute  for  parental  authority,  and  performance  of 
parental  duty,  is  but  a  recognition  of  the  duty  of  the  state,  as  the 
legitimate  guardian  and  protector  of  children  where  other  guardian- 
ship fails.  No  constitutional  right  is  violated."* 

The  supreme  court  of  Idaho,  in  one  of  the  most  recent  deci- 
sions, thus  refers  to  the  juvenile  court: 

"  Its  object  is  to  confer  a  benefit  both  upon  the  child  and  the 
community  in  the  way  of  surrounding  the  child  with  better  and 
more  elevating  influences  and  of  educating  and  training  him  in  the 
direction  of  good  citizenship,  and  thereby  saving  him  to  society 
and  adding  a  good  and  useful  citizen  to  the  community.  This,  too, 

*  Commonwealth  v.  Fisher,  213  Pa.  St.  48;  62  At.  198  (1905). 
190 


ESTABLISHMENT  OF  JUVENILE   COURT 

is  done  for  the  minor  at  a  time  when  he  is  not  entitled,  either  b> 
natural  law  or  the  laws  of  the  land,  to  his  absolute  freedom,  but 
rather  at  a  time  when  he  is  subject  to  the  restraint  and  custody  of 
either  a  natural  guardian  or  a  legally  constituted  and  appointed 
guardian  to  whom  he  owes  obedience  and  subjection.  Under  this 
law  the  state,  for  the  time  being,  assumes  to  discharge  the  parental 
duty  and  to  direct  his  custody  and  assume  his  restraint. 

"It  would  be  carrying  the  protection  of  'inalienable  rights' 
guaranteed  by  the  Constitution,  a  long  way  to  say  that  that  guar- 
anty extends  to  a  free  and  unlimited  exercise  of  the  whims, 
caprices,  or  proclivities  of  either  a  child  or  its  parents  or  guardians, 
for  idleness,  ignorance,  crime,  indigence,  or  any  kindred  disposi- 
tions or  inclinations."* 

Years  ago,  in  considering  the  power  of  the  court  to  send  a 
child  to  the  house  of  refuge,  Chief  Justice  Gibson  said: 

"  May  not  the  natural  parents,  when  unequal  to  the  task  of 
education,  or  unworthy  of  it,  be  superseded  by  the  parens  patrice, 
or  common  guardian  of  the  community?  It  is  to  be  remembered 
that  the  public  has  a  paramount  interest  in  the  virtue  and  knowl- 
edge of  its  members,  and  that  of  strict  right,  the  business  of  educa- 
tion belongs  to  it.  That  parents  are  ordinarily  entrusted  with  it 
is  because  it  can  seldom  be  put  in  better  hands;  but  where  they 
are  incompetent  or  corrupt,  what  is  there  to  prevent  the  public 
from  withdrawing  their  faculties,  held  as  they  obviously  are  at  its 
sufferance?  The  right  of  parental  control  is  a  natural,  but  not  an 
inalienable  one.  It  is  not  excepted  by  the  declaration  of  rights 
out  of  the  subjects  of  ordinary  legislation/'f 

Care  must,  however,  be  taken  not  to  provide  for  dealing  with 
the  child  as  a  criminal.  The  city  of  Detroit,  as  the  resulf  of  a 
decision  of  the  highest  court,  lacked  for  a  time  a  juvenile  c0urt.J 
The  supreme  court  of  Michigan,  following  the  cases  cited  and 
numerous  others,  over-ruled  many  objections  urged  agaftnst  the 
constitutionality  of  the  Detroit  juvenile  court  act,  but  neverthe- 
less held  it  invalid,  saying: 

"The  statute,  it  is  true,  declares  that  the  proceedings  shall 
not  be  taken  to  be  criminal  proceedings  in  any  sense;  and  yet  by 

*  Ex  parte  Sharp,  15  Idaho,  120,  96  Pac.  563. 
t  Ex  parte  Grouse,  4  Wharton  9  (Pa.)  (1838). 

t  Robinsons  v.  Wayne  Circuit  Judges,  151  Mich.  315;    115  N.  W.  682  (1908). 

191 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND   THE   HOME 

section  14  it  is  provided  that  if  the  child  be  adjudged  a  delinquent 
child,  the  court  may  place  the  case  on  trial,  and  impose  a  fine  not 
to  exceed  $25  and  costs,  etc.  This  can  have  no  other  purpose  than 
punishment  for  a  delinquency,  which  means  nothing  less,  or  at 
least  includes  one  who  violates  any  law  of  this  state  or  any  city 
ordinance. 

"  In  the  present  case,  however,  this  statute  is  a  state  law  pro- 
viding for  a  penalty.  A  complaint,  an  arrest,  and  trial  are  author- 
ized, and,  upon  a  determination,  the  imposition  of  a  fine.  It  is 
difficult  to  conceive  of  any  element  of  a  criminal  prosecution  which 
may  be  said  to  be  lacking.  And,  as  section  28  of  article  6  of  the 
Constitution  very  plainly  provides  for  a  jury  of  twelve  men  in  all 
courts  of  record  in  every  criminal  prosecution,  the  provisions  for  a 
jury  of  six  for  the  trial  of  delinquents  is  in  violation  of  this  section." 

Further  legislation  in  Michigan  has  now  corrected  this 
defect. 

In  answer  to  the  objection  that  the  act  has  the  effect  of 
depriving  a  parent  of  the  custody  of  his  child  in  violation  of  his 
constitutional  rights,  the  supreme  court  of  Idaho  says: 

"  If  the  parent  objects  to  the  child's  being  taken  care  of  by 
the  state  in  the  manner  provided  for  by  the  act,  he  may  appear  and 
present  his  objections.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  he  is  not  made  a 
party  to  the  hearing  and  proceeding,  under  all  the  recognized  rules 
of  legal  procedure,  he  is  clearly  not  bound  by  the  judgment  and 
none  of  his  rights  are  precluded. 

"The  parent  or  guardian  cannot  be  bound  by  the  order  or 
judgment  of  the  probate  court  in  adjudging  a  child  delinquent  and 
sending  him  to  the  Industrial  Training  School  unless  he  has  ap- 
peared or  been  brought  into  the  proceeding  in  the  probate  court."* 

The  supreme  court  of  Utah  emphasized  this  requirement 
when  it  said: 

"  Before  the  state  can  be  substituted  to  the  right  of  the  parent 
it  must  affirmatively  be  made  to  appear  that  the  parent  has  for- 
feited his  natural  and  legal  right  to  the  custody  and  control  of  the 
child  by  reason  of  his  failure,  inability,  neglect,  or  incompetency  to 
discharge  the  duty  and  thus  enjoy  the  right. 

"  Unless,  therefore,  both  the  delinquency  of  the  child  and  the 
incompetency,  for  any  reason,  of  the  parent  concur,  and  are  so 
found,  the  court  exceeds  its  power  when  committing  a  child  to  any 
of  the  institutions  contemplated  by  the  act."f 
*  Ex  parte  Sharp  (supra).  t  Mill  v.  Brown  88  Pac.  609  (1907). 

192 


ESTABLISHMENT  OF   JUVENILE   COURT 

It  is,  therefore,  important  to  provide,  as  has  been  done  in  the 
most  recent  statutes,  but  as  was  not  done  in  the  earlier  acts,  that 
the  parents  be  made  parties  to  the  proceedings,  and  that  they  be 
given  an  opportunity  to  be  heard  therein  in  defense  of  their  parental 
rights. 

The  supreme  court  of  Illinois,  however,  struck  a  discordant 
note  in  its  decision  in  a  case  releasing  the  child  from  the  state 
training  school  for  boys.  Subsequently,  however,  it  granted  a  re- 
hearing, and  because  of  the  discontinuance  thereafter  of  the  habeas 
corpus  proceedings,  rendered  no  final  judgment  in  the  case.  In  the 
original  opinion,  however,  which  we  may,  in  view  of  the  re-hearing, 
regard  as  retracted,  the  court,  while  upholding  the  constitutionality 
of  the  juvenile  court  law  in  the  case  of  a  child  whose  parents  actively 
contributed  to  its  wrongdoing,  said : 

"  If  this  enactment  is  effective  and  capable  of  being  enforced 
as  against  the  relator,  the  father  of  the  boy,  it  must  be  upon  the 
theory  that  it  is  within  the  power  of  the  state  to  seize  any  child 
under  the  age  of  sixteen  years  who  has  committed  a  misdemeanor, 
though  the  father  may  have  always  provided  a  comfortable,  quiet, 
orderly,  and  moral  home  for  him,  and  have  supplied  him  with 
school  facilities,  had  not  neglected  his  moral  training,  and  had  been 
and  was  still  ready  to  render  him  all  the  duties  of  a  parent.  We 
do  not  think  it  is  within  the  power  of  the  General  Assembly  to  thus 
infringe  upon  parental  rights."* 

The  answer  to  this,  made  by  counsel  on  the  argument  on  re- 
hearing, would  seem  to  be  conclusive.  They  said: 

"The  boy  incorrigible  at  home  must  be  corrected  by  the 
State.  Whether  this  correction  be  by  fine,  imprisonment,  or  com- 
mitment to  school,  is  a  matter  which  does  belong  to  the  legislature 
and  not  to  this  court  to  determine. 

"  This  law  applies,  with  equal  force,  to  the  son  of  the  pauper 
and  the  millionaire,  to  the  minister's  son  (who  is  sometimes  the 
wolf  among  the  flock)  as  well  as  to  the  son  of  the  convict  and  the 
criminal.  The  circumstances  and  disposition  of  the  parents  are 
not  the  test  by  which  the  state  measures  its  power  over  the  child; 
the  right  of  the  parent  to  retain  the  society  and  the  services  of  the 
child  is  rightfully  suspended  when  the  parent  is  unsuccessful  in 
keeping  the  child  in  a  state  of  obedience  to  the  criminal  law  of  the 

*  People  ex  rel.  Schwartz  v.  McLain,  38  Chicago  Legal  News  166  (1905). 

193 


THE    DELINQUENT   CHILD   AND   THE    HOME 

state;  he  cannot  keep  his  child  and  allow  him  to  continue  to  violate 
the  law  of  the  state  without  successful  check  or  barrier  thereon, 
just  because  he  has  a  comfortable  and  moral  home. 

"The  manner  in  which  the  power  of  the  state  shall  be  exer- 
cised, and  the  extent  to  which  the  deprivation  of  the  parent  shall 
go,  is  a  matter  for  the  determination  of  the  legislature,  and  the 
legislature  by  this  act  has  confided  it  to  a  court  of  chancery,  where 
the  parental  power  of  the  state  has  been  lodged  and  exercised  from 
time  immemorial." 

They  quote,  too,  the  passage  heretofore  cited  from  the  deci- 
sion of  Chief  Justice  Gibson,  with  this  addition: 

"The  right  of  parental  control  is  a  natural  but  not  an  in- 
alienable one.  It  is  not  excepted  by  the  Declaration  of  Rights 
out  of  the  subjects  of  ordinary  legislation  and  it  consequently  re- 
mains subject  to  the  ordinary  legislative  power  which,  wantonly 
or  inconveniently  used,  would  soon  be  constitutionally  restricted, 
but  the  competency  of  which,  as  the  government  is  constituted, 
cannot  be  doubted."* 

One  more  legal  question  remains.  In  a  decision,!  charac- 
terized by  the  supreme  court  of  Michigan  in  the  Robinson  case 
(supra)  as  "  now  chiefly  notable  as  an  example  of  the  vigor  with 
which  that  which  is  not  the  law  may  be  stated,"  the  supreme  court 
of  Illinois  released  a  child  from  the  reformatory  on  the  ground 
that  the  reformatory  was  a  prison;  that  incarceration  therein  was 
necessarily  punishment  for  a  crime;  and  that  such  a  punishment 
could  be  inflicted  only  after  criminal  proceedings  conducted  with 
due  regard  to  the  constitutional  rights  of  the  defendant.  Whether 
the  criticism  be  just  or  not,  the  case  suggests  a  real  truth,  and  one 
which,  in  the  enthusiastic  progress  of  the  juvenile  court  movement, 
is  in  danger  of  being  overlooked.  If  a  child  must  be  taken  from 
its  home,  if  for  the  natural  parental  care  that  of  the  state  is  to  be 
substituted,  a  real  school,  not  a  prison  in  disguise  must  be  provided.! 

*  Ex  parte  Grouse,  supra.          f  People  ex  rel.  v.  Turner  55  111.  280,  (1870). 

t  Mr.  Herbert  Samuels  in  introducing  his  excellent  Children's  Bill  said 
(Hansard,  4th  series,  v.  183,  p.  1434),  in  reference  to  that  part  of  it  which  has  to  do 
with  the  juvenile  offenders,  that  it  is  based  on  three  main  principles: 

"The  first  is  that  the  child  offender  ought  to  be  kept  separate  from  the  adult 
criminal,  and  should  receive  at  the  hands  of  the  law  a  treatment  differentiated  to 
suit  his  special  needs — that  the  courts  should  be  agencies  for  the  rescue  as  well  as 
the  punishment  of  children.  We  require  the  establishment  through  the  country  of 
juvenile  courts — that  is  to  say,  children's  cases  shall  be  heard  in  a  court  held  in  a 

194 


ESTABLISHMENT   OF   JUVENILE    COURT 

Taking  a  child  away  from  its  parents  and  sending  it  even  to 
an  industrial  school  is  as  far  as  possible  to  be  avoided;  and  when 
the  child  is  allowed  to  return  home,  it  must  be  under  probation, 
subject  to  the  guidance  and  friendly  interest  of  the  probation 
officer,  the  representative  of  the  court.  To  raise  the  age  of  criminal 
responsibility  from  seven  or  ten  to  twelve  or  eighteen,  without 
providing  for  an  efficient  system  of  probation,  would  indeed  be 
disastrous.  Probation  is,  in  fact,  the  foundation  stone  of  juvenile 
court  legislation.* 

separate  room  or  at  a  separate  time  from  the  courts  which  are  held  for  adult  cases, 
and  that  the  public  who  are  not  concerned  shall  be  excluded  from  admission. 

"In  London,  we  propose  to  appoint  by  administrative  action  a  special 
children's  magistrate  to  visit  in  turn  a  circuit  of  courts.  Further,  we  require  police 
authorities  throughout  the  whole  of  the  country  to  establish  places  of  detention  to 
which  children  shall  be  committed  on  arrest,  if  they  are  not  bailed,  and  on  remand 
or  commitment  for  trial,  instead  of  being  committed  to  prison.  .  .  . 

"The  second  principle  on  which  this  bill  is  based  is  that  the  parent  of  the 
child  offender  must  be  made  to  feel  more  responsible  for  the  wrongdoing  of  his  child. 
He  cannot  be  allowed  to  neglect  the  upbringing  of  his  children  and  having  com- 
mitted the  grave  offense  of  throwing  on  society  a  child  criminal  wash  his  hands  of 
the  consequences  and  escape  scot  free.  We  require  the  attendance  in  court  of  the 
parent  in  all  cases  where  the  child  is  charged  where  there  is  no  valid  reason  to  the 
contrary,  and  we  considerably  enlarge  the  powers,  already  conferred  upon  the  mag- 
istrates by  the  Youthful  Offenders  Act  of  1901,  to  require  the  parent  when  it  is 
just  to  do  so,  to  pay  the  fines  inflicted  for  the  offense  which  his  child  has  committed. 

"The  third  principle  which  we  had  in  view  in  framing  this  part  of  the  Bill  is 
that  the  commitment  of  children  in  the  common  gaols,  no  matter  what  the  offense 
may  be  that  is  committed,  is  an  unsuitable  penalty  to  impose.  After  consultation 
with  many  of  their  chief  judicial  and  legal  authorities,  the  government  has  come  to 
the  conclusion  that  the  time  has  now  arrived  when  Parliament  can  be  asked  to 
abolish  the  imprisonment  of  children  altogether,  and  we  extend  this  proposal  to  the 
age  of  sixteen  with  a  few  carefully  defined  and  necessary  exceptions." 

*  As  Charles  W.  Heuisler,  judge  of  the  juvenile  court  of  Baltimore,  has  well 
said  (Charities,  XI:  399-401.  Nov.  7,  1903): 

"The  work  of  the  children's  courts  must  be  done  in  the  children's  homes. 
No  temporary  veneer  put  upon  the  child  by  the  most  sympathetic  judge,  by  reason 
of  either  counsel,  suggestion,  or  threat,  can  be  availing,  if  after  the  process  the  sub- 
ject is  sent  back  alone,  and  again  into  the  same  experiences  because  of  which  his 
trouble  was  occasioned.  The  work  must  be  carried  into  the  home  and  the  heart  of 
the  boy  and  of  his  people.  Not  the  offense  alone  must  pass  under  the  observation 
of  the  court,  but  the  temptation,  the  lack  of  opportunity,  the  bad  examples,  all  the 
inducing  causes  of  the  offense  must  be  discovered  and  when  discovered  rooted  out. 
The  youth  must  be  ruled  with  kindness  and  suggestion;  be  made  to  understand 
the  meaning  of  home  and  law  and  necessary  discipline.  He  should  be  told  that 
be  he  but  a  child  today,  he  is  the  man  of  the  coming  morrow.  His  quickening  in- 
telligence, his  hopes,  his  ambitions  must  be  appealed  to,  and  his  response  is  almost 
certain. 

"The  voice  of  pity  and  compassion  must  reach  him  in  his  home,  and  reach 
his  parents  also  in  his  home.  Down  to  the  very  depths  of  that  home  must  it  go. 
The  probation  system  must  recognize  that  in  the  moral  as  in  the  material,  the  rain 
and  the  sunshine  of  pity  and  compassion  are  for  the  roots  of  the  plant  as  well  as 
its  flowers." 

195 


THE    DELINQUENT   CHILD   AND   THE   HOME 

But  in  all  this,  there  is  nothing  radically  new.  Massa- 
chusetts has  had  probation,  not  only  in  cases  of  minors  but  even  in 
cases  of  adults,  for  forty  years;  and  several  other  states  have  pro- 
visions for  the  suspension  of  a  criminal  sentence  in  the  case  of 
adults,  permitting  the  defendant  to  go  free,  but  subject  to  the 
control  of  a  probation  officer.  Wherever  juvenile  courts  have  been 
established  a  system  of  probation  has  been  provided  for,  and  even 
where  as  yet  the  juvenile  court  system  has  not  been  fully  developed, 
some  steps  have  been  taken  to  substitute  probation  for  imprison- 
ment of  juvenile  offenders. 

With  reference  to  the  actual  court  procedure  and  practice  it 
should  be  said  in  the  first  place,  that  the  number  of  arrests  is 
greatly  decreased.  The  child  and  the  parents  are  notified  to  ap- 
pear in  court  and  unless  the  danger  of  escape  is  great,  or  the  offense 
very  serious,  or  the  home  totally  unfit  for  the  child,  detention  be- 
fore hearing  is  unnecessary.  Children  are  permitted  to  go  on  their 
own  recognizance  or  that  of  their  parents,  or  on  giving  bail.  Pro- 
bation officers  should  be,  and  often  are,  authorized  to  act  in  this 
respect  and  to  determine  whether  a  summons  must  issue  or  the 
child  be  detained.  If,  however,  it  becomes  necessary  to  detain  the 
children  either  before  a  hearing  or  pending  a  continuance,  or  even 
after  the  adjudication,  before  they  can  be  admitted  into  the  home 
or  institution  to  which  they  are  to  be  sent,  they  are  no  longer  kept  in 
prisons  or  jails,  but  in  detention  homes.  In  some  states  the  laws  are 
mandatory  that  the  local  authorities  provide  such  homes,  managed 
in  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  this  legislation.  They  are  feasible 
even  in  the  smallest  communities  inasmuch  as  the  simplest  kind  of 
building  best  meets  the  need.  In  this  building  the  court  may  be 
held,  as  is  done  in  some  of  the  larger  cities. 

The  jurisdiction  to  hear  the  cases  is  generally  granted  to  an 
existing  court  having  full  equity  powers.  In  some  cities,  however, 
special  courts  have  been  provided,  with  judges  devoting  their 
entire  time  to  this  work.  If  these  special  courts  can  be  constitu- 
tionally vested  with  full  and  complete  chancery  and  criminal  juris- 
diction, much  is  to  be  said  in  favor  of  their  establishment.  In  the 
large  cities  particularly,  the  entire  time  of  one  judge  may  well  be 
needed.  It  has  been  suggested  from  time  to  time  that  all  the  judges 
of  the  municipal  or  special  sessions  courts  be  empowered  to  act  in 

196 


ESTABLISHMENT  OF  JUVENILE   COURT 

these  cases,  but  while  it  would  be  valuable  in  metropolitan  com- 
munities to  have  more  than  one  court  house,  nevertheless  it  would 
seem  to  be  even  more  important  to  have  a  single  juvenile  court 
judge,  empowered,  however,  to  appoint  assistants  or  masters.* 

The  personality  of  the  judge  is  an  all-important  matter.  The 
supreme  court  of  Utah,  commenting  upon  the  choice  of  a  layman, 
a  man  genuinely  interested  in  children,  pointed  out  that : 

"To  administer  juvenile  laws  in  accordance  with  their  true 
spirit  and  intent  requires  a  man  of  broad  mind,  of  almost  infinite 
patience,  and  one  who  is  the  possessor  of  great  faith  in  humanity 
and  thoroughly  imbued  with  that  spirit. 

"The  judge  of  any  court,  and  especially  a  judge  of  a  juvenile 
court,  should  be  willing  at  all  times,  not  only  to  respect,  but  to 
maintain  and  preserve,  the  legal  and  natural  rights  of  men  and 
children  alike.  .  .  .  The  fact  that  the  American  system  of 
government  is  controlled  and  directed  by  laws,  not  men,  cannot  be 
too  often  or  too  strongly  impressed  upon  those  who  administer  any 
branch  or  part  of  the  government.  Where  a  proper  spirit  and  good 
judgment  are  followed  as  a  guide,  oppression  can  and  will  be 
avoided.  .  .  . 

"The  juvenile  court  law  is  of .  such  vast  importance  to  the 
state  and  society  that  it  seems  to  us  it  should  be  administered  by 
those  who  are  learned  in  the  law  and  versed  in  the  rules  of  proce- 
dure, to  the  end  that  the  beneficent  purposes  of  the  law  may  be 
made  effective  and  individual  rights  respected.  Care  must  be 
exercised  in  both  the  selection  of  a  judge  and  in  the  administration 
of  the  law."t 


*  The  British  government  has  adopted  this  policy  for  London.  Mr.  Herbert 
Samuels  stated  (Hansard,  4th  series,  v.  186,  p.  1298)  during  the  debate  on  the  chil- 
dren's act: 

"It  is  impossible  to  bring  all  the  children,  witnesses,  parents,  probation 
officers,  and  other  persons  concerned  into  one  central  court.  The  best  course  will 
be  to  establish  four  places  of  detention  in  different  parts  of  London.  I  hope  it  will 
be  practicable  in  these  places  to  provide  rooms,  without  any  additional  cost  or  very 
small  additional  cost,  which  can  be  used  as  court  houses.  The  children's  magis- 
trate could  visit  in  turn  these  four  houses.  .  .  .  The  result  would  be  that  a  certain 
number  of  children  would  be  kept  over  night  sometimes,  when  they  could  not  be 
released  on  bail;  but  all  those  that  1  have  consulted  agree  that  it  is  better  to  keep, 
if  necessary,  a  small  number  of  children  in  detention  for  one  night  than  to  forego 
the  great  benefit  of  having  a  special  magistrate  to  deal  with  these  cases." 

By  the  Colorado  act  of  1909  masters  of  chancery  designated  as  masters  of 
discipline  may  be  appointed  by  and  to  act  under  the  direction  of  the  juvenile  court 
judge. 

t  Mill  v.  Brown,  supra. 

14  197 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 

The  decision  but  emphasizes  the  dangers  that  beset  the  path 
of  the  judge  of  the  juvenile  court.  The  public  at  large,  sympa- 
thetic as  it  may  be  with  the  work,  and  even  the  probation  officers 
who  are  not  lawyers,  regard  him  as  one  having  almost  autocratic 
power.  Because  of  the  extent  of  his  jurisdiction  and  the  tre- 
mendous responsibility  that  it  entails,  it  would  seem  to  be  essential 
that  he  be  a  trained  lawyer,  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  doctrine 
that  ours  is  a  "government  of  laws  and  not  of  men." 

He  must,  however,  be  more  than  this.  He  must  be  a  student 
of  and  deeply  interested  in  the  problems  of  philanthropy  and  child 
life,  as  well  as  a  lover  of  children;  he  must  be  able  to  understand 
the  boys'  point  of  view  and  ideas  of  justice;  he  must  be  willing  and 
patient  enough  to  search  out  the  underlying  causes  of  the  trouble, 
and  to  formulate  the  plan  by  which,  through  the  co-operation  of 
many  agencies,  the  cure  may  be  effected. 

In  some  very  important  jurisdictions  the  vicious  practice  is 
indulged  in  of  assigning  a  different  judge  to  the  juvenile  court  work 
every  month  or  every  three  months.  It  is  impossible  for  these 
judges  to  gain  the  necessary  experience  or  to  devote  the  necessary 
time  to  the  study  of  the  new  problems.  The  service  should  under 
no  circumstances  be  for  less  than  one  year,  and  preferably  for  a 
longer  period.  In  some  of  our  cities,  notably  in  Denver,  the  judge 
has  discharged  not  only  the  judicial  functions,  but  also  those  of  the 
most  efficient  probation  officer.  Judge  Lindsey's  love  for  the  work, 
and  his  personality,  have  enabled  him  to  exert  a  powerful  influ- 
ence on  the  boys  and  girls  that  are  brought  before  him.  While  doubt- 
less the  best  results  can  be  thus  obtained  in  such  a  court  as  exists 
in  Denver,  lack  of  time  would  prevent  a  judge  in  the  largest  cities 
from  adding  the  duties  of  probation  officer  to  his  strictly  judicial 
functions,  even  were  it  not  extremely  difficult  to  find  the  necessary 
combination  of  elements  united  in  one  man. 

The  problem  to  be  determined  by  the  judge  is  not,  "  Has  this 
boy  or  girl  committed  a  specific  wrong?"  but  "What  is  he,  how 
has  he  become  what  he  is,  and  what  would  best  be  done  in  his 
interest,  and  in  the  interest  of  the  state,  to  save  him  from  a  down- 
ward career?"  It  is  apparent  at  once  that  the  ordinary  legal 
evidence  in  a  criminal  court  is  not  the  sort  of  evidence  to  be  heard 
in  such  a  proceeding.  A  thorough  investigation,  usually  made  by 

198 


ESTABLISHMENT  OF   JUVENILE   COURT 

the  probation  officer,  will  give  the  court  much  information  bearing 
upon  the  heredity  and  environment  of  the  child.  This,  of  course, 
will  be  supplemented  in  every  possible  way;  but  this  alone  is  not 
enough.  The  physical  and  mental  condition  of  the  child  must  be 
known,  and  it  is,  therefore,  of  the  utmost  importance  that  there  be 
attached  to  the  court,  as  has  been  done  in  a  few  cities,  a  child- 
study  department,  where  every  child,  before  hearing,  shall  be  sub-  ., 
ject  to  a  thoroughly  scientific  psycho-physical  examination. 

The  child  who  must  be  brought  into  court  should,  of  course, 
be  made  to  know  that  he  is  face  to  face  with  the  power  of  the  state, 
but  he  should  at  the  same  time,  and  more  emphatically,  be  made  to  I— 
feel  that  he  is  the  object  of  its  tender  care  and  solicitude.  The 
ordinary  trappings  of  the  court  room  are  out  of  place  in  such  hear- 
ings. The  judge  on  a  bench,  looking  down  upon  the  boy  standing 
at  the  bar,  can  never  evoke  a  proper  sympathetic  spirit.  Seated 
at  a  desk,  with  the  little  one  at  his  side,  where  he  can  on  occasion 
put  his  arm  around  his  shoulder  and  draw  the  lad  to  him,  the  judge 
while  losing  none  of  his  judicial  dignity,  will  gain  immensely  in  the 
effectiveness  of  his  work. 

It  need  hardly  be  pointed  out,  however,  that  it  is  of  far 
greater  importance  to  keep  children  out  of  any  court,  than  to 
bring  them  into  the  juvenile  court.  In  many  communities,  the 
influence  of  the  probation  officers  in  their  immediate  surroundings 
has  been  such  that  they  have  become  arbiters  of  the  petty  disputes 
and  quarrels  that  in  former  years  brought  not  only  the  children 
but  their  parents  into  conflict  and  into  court. 

The  object  of  the  juvenile  court  and  of  the  intervention  of 
the  state  is,  of  course,  in  no  case  to  lessen  or  to  weaken  the  sense 
of  responsibility  either  of  the  child  or  of  the  parent.  On  the  con- 
trary, the  aim  is  to  develop  and  to  enforce  it.  Therefore,  it  is 
wisely  provided  in  most  of  the  recent  acts  that  the  child  may  be 
compelled  when  on  probation,  if  of  the  working  age,  to  make 
restitution  for  any  damage  done.  Moreover,  the  parents  may  not 
only  be  compelled  to  contribute  to  the  support  of  the  children  who 
are  taken  away  from  them  and  sent  to  institutions,  but  since  the 
Colorado  act  of  1903,  they,  as  well  as  any  other  adults,  may  be 
made  criminally  liable  for  their  acts  or  neglect  contributing  to  a 
child's  dependency  or  delinquency.  In  most  of  the  jurisdictions 

199 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

which  have  established  separate  juvenile  courts,  as  well  as  in  some 
of  the  others,  all  criminal  charges  affecting  children,  which  are 
brought  against  adults,  are  tried  by  the  juvenile  court  judge.  In 
drafting  legislation  of  this  kind,  however,  it  must  not  be  overlooked 
that  if  criminal  proceedings  are  brought  against  the  adult,  his  con- 
stitutional rights  must  be  carefully  safeguarded.  Following  gen- 
eral principles  such  penal  acts  are  strictly  construed  and  therefore 
in  the  recent  case  of  Gibson  v.  the  People,*  the  Colorado  supreme 
court  limited  the  application  of  the  act  of  1903  to  the  parents  and 
those  standing  in  a  parental  relation  to  the  child.  Colorado,  in 
1907,  however,  as  well  as  several  other  states,  expressly  extended 
the  scope  of  such  statutes  so  as  to  include  any  person  whether 
standing  in  loco  parentis  or  not.  The  supreme  court  of  Oregon  f 
has  construed  such  legislation  to  refer  only  to  misconduct  not 
otherwise  punishable. 

Kentucky,  in  1908,  followed  by  Colorado,  in  1909,  has  enacted 
a  statute  providing  for  the  enforcement  of  parental  obligations, 
not  in  the  criminal  but  in  the  chancery  branch  of  the  juvenile  court. 
A  decree  not  merely  for  the  payment  of  support  money,  but  for 
the  performance  or  omission  of  such  acts,  as  under  the  circum- 
stances of  the  cases  are  found  necessary,  may  be  enforced  by  con- 
tempt proceedings. 

^—  Valuable,  however,  as  is  the  introduction  of  the  juvenile 

|  court  into  our  system  of  jurisprudence,  valuable  both  in  its  effect 
upon  the  child,  the  parents,  and  the  community  at  large,  and  in  the 
L___great  material  saving  to  the  state  which  the  substitution  of  proba- 
tion for  imprisonment  has  brought  about,  it  is  in  no  sense  a  cure-all. 
Failures  will  result  from  probation  just  as  they  have  resulted  from 
imprisonment. 

But  more  than  this;  the  work  of  the  juvenile  court  is,  at  the 
best,  palliative,  curative.  We  take  these  little  human  beings  that 
are  going  the  downward  path  and  we  try  to  save  them — and 
to  some  extent  succeed — from  going  farther  down.  But  that  is 
not  the  most  important  task.  The  vital  thing  is  to  prevent  them 
from  reaching  that  condition  in  which  they  have  to  be  dealt  with  in 
any  court,  and  we  are  not  doing  our  duty  to  the  children  of  today, 
the  men  and  women  of  tomorrow,  when  we  neglect  to  destroy  the 

*  99  Pac.  333  (1909).  f  State  v.  Dunn  99  Pac.  278  (1909). 

200 


ESTABLISHMENT  OF  JUVENILE   COURT 

evils  that  are  leading  them  into  careers  of  delinquency;  when  we 
fail  not  merely  to  uproot  the  wrong,  but  to  implant  in  place  of  it 
the  positive  good. 

"  We  want  to  say  to  the  child,"  declared  one  of  the  speakers 
in  the  course  of  the  debate  on  the  Children's  Bill  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  "  that  if  the  world  or  the  world's  law  has  not  been  his 
friend  in  the  past,  it  shall  be  now.  We  say  that  it  is  the  duty  of 
this  Parliament,  and  that  this  Parliament  is  determined  to  lift, 
if  possible,  and  rescue  him;  to  shut  the  prison  door  and  to  open  the 
door  of  hope."* 

*  1 86  Hansard's  Parliamentary  Debates,  4th  ser.,  p.  1262. 


2O I 


APPENDIX  II 

TESTIMONY    OF   JUDGE    MERRITT   W.    PINCKNEY 

(Given  before  the  Cook  County  Civil  Service  Commission,  November 

22,  23,  1911.) 

DURING  the  autumn  of  191 1,  the  chief  probation  officer  of 
the  juvenile  court  was  placed  on  trial  by  the  Civil  Service 
Commission  of  Cook  County  on  charges  of  alleged  in- 
competence preferred  by  the  chairman  of  the  county  board.*  Dur- 
ing the  course  of  the  trial  Judge  Merritt  W.  Pinckney,  who  has 
served  as  judge  of  the  juvenile  court  since  September,  1908,  was 
called  upon  to  testify.  His  statements  with  reference  to  the  history 
of  juvenile  court  legislation  in  Illinois,  the  methods  and  practice  of 
the  court  in  Cook  County,  the  resources  available,  the  limitations 
endured,  and  the  lines  of  development  to  be  followed,  were  so  wise, 
so  accurate,  and  so  sympathetic  that  his  consent  to  the  publication 
of  his  testimony  was  sought.  Parts  of  the  examination!  or  cross- 
examination  which  had  to  do  with  merely  personal  matters  or  had 
some  other  purpose  than  the  setting  forth  of  simple  facts  with 
reference  to  the  court,  are  omitted  as  irrelevant.  It  is  believed 
that  in  Judge  Pinckney's  testimony  we  are  enabled  to  present  a 
unique  statement  as  to  the  achievements  of  the  juvenile  court  to- 
gether with  the  strongest  possible  plea  for  the  further  development 
of  its  resources  and  the  extension  of  its  activities. 


Q.  Judge,  would  you  make  a  preliminary  statement  to  the 
Commission,  briefly,  about  the  state  of  the  law  with  regard  to 
juvenile  offenders  and  dependents  prior  to  the  juvenile  court  act? 

*  It  is  only  fair  to  say  that  these  charges  were  not  sustained  by  the  evidence, 
t  This  examination  was  conducted  by  the  attorney  for  the  defense,  Mr.  Al- 
bert M.  Kales. 

2O2 


TESTIMONY   OF  JUDGE    PINCKNEY 

A.  In  order  to  explain  the  law  affecting  the  children  of  the 
state,  a  statement  should  be  made  first  with  reference  to  the  treat- 
ment of  juvenile  dependents  prior  to  July  i,  1899,  and  second  with 
reference  to  the  treatment  of  juvenile  offenders  up  to  the  same  date. 
The  condition  of  dependents  in  Cook  County  prior  to  July  i,  1899, 
was  deplorable.  Their  condition  after  that  date  was  much  im- 
proved. (Prior  to  July  i,  1899,  the  state  exercised  neither  super- 
vision nor  care  over  any,  excepting  those  who  came  under  the  in- 
dustrial school  act  for  girls  passed  in  1879*  and  the  training  school 
act  for  boys  passed  in  1883.*  These  acts  were  substantially 
amended  in  1885  and  embodied  all  the  law  relating  to  dependent 
children. 

The  condition  of  dependent  children  in  Cook  County  prior 
to  July  i,  1899,  may  be  well  illustrated  by  a  statement  made  before 
the  joint  committee  of  the  House  and  Senate  sometime  in  March, 
1899,  when  the  bill  that  afterwards  became  the  juvenile  court  law 
was  being  considered.  A  prominent  citizen  of  Chicago  stated  that 
he  was  the  superintendent  of  a  society  having  in  its  control  20,000 
dependent  children — who  would  be  known  as  dependent  children 
now — and  that,  so  far  as  state  supervision  was  concerned,  he  could 
take  those  children  down  to  the  lake  and  come  back  alone  without 
any  questions  being  asked,  if  it  were  not  for  the  fact  that  in  drown- 
ing them  he  might  be  held  for  a  crime.  This  statement  was  made 
to  the  judiciary  committee  of  the  legislature  at  that  time  and  it 
was  not  contradicted.  Until  a  child  had  committed  an  offense 
against  the  state,  the  state  of  Illinois  exercised  neither  supervision 
nor  care  over  him  save  through  the  industrial  school  and  the  training 
school  acts,  except  so  far  as  the  court  of  chancery  assumed  juris- 
diction over  dependent  children  as  it  did  from  time  to  time.  The 
chancery  court  intervened  generally  to  adjust  property  rights  and 
intervened  also  in  some  cases  in  which  other  courts  could  not  take 
jurisdiction.  When  the  child  had  offended  against  the  majesty  of 
the  state,  the  child  was  classed  as  a  criminal,  and  then  the  state 
became  interested  in  the  child.  That  was  the  first  supervision 
and  care  exercised  under  the  law. 

Second,  as  to  children  called  "delinquents"  since  the  passage 

*  For  these  laws  as  at  present  in  force  see  Illinois  Revised  Statutes  (1909) 
chap.  23. 

203 


THE    DELINQUENT   CHILD    AND   THE    HOME 

of  the  juvenile  court  law,  and  "criminals"  prior  to  its  enactment, 
the  state  of  Illinois,  as  we  look  back  upon  it  now,  while  ahead  of 
other  states  in  the  Union,  was,  to  put  it  mildly,  rather  slow,  in 
passing  laws  intended  to  improve  the  conditions  surrounding  that 
class  of  children.  In  1845,  when  Illinois  had  been  twenty-seven 
years  a  state,  it  was  enacted  that  an  infant  under  the  age  of  ten 
years  should  not  be  found  guilty  of  any  crime  or  misdemeanor. 
The  legislators  at  that  period,  although  they  may  have  understood 
something  about  human  nature,  evidently  knew  little  about  crim- 
inology, if  they  could  fix  a  criminal  responsibility  upon  a  child  of 
ten  years  and  one  month  of  age,  or  of  any  age  over  ten;  and  yet 
conditions  improved  little  in  this  state  from  1845*  until  1874.  In 
the  latter  year  the  criminal  code  was  adopted,  which  still  provided 
that  a  child  under  ten  could  not  be  found  guilty  of  any  crime  or 
misdemeanor,  thus  declaring  inferentially  that  any  child  over  that 
age  could  be  found  guilty;  and  children  were  convicted  under  this 
law. 

Twenty-five  years  more  elapsed  before  the  state  and  the 
legislature  awakened  to  the  fact  that  it  was  wrong  to  call  a  child 
just  past  the  age  of  ten  years  a  criminal,  and  the  juvenile  court  law 
was  passed  in  1899,!  raising  the  limit  of  criminal  responsibility  to 
the  age  of  sixteen.  In  1907  that  age  was  raised  to  seventeen  for  boys 
and  eighteen  for  girls,  with  the  further  proviso  that,  when  a  child 
once  came  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  juvenile  court,  the  court 
should  have  and  retain  custody  and  guardianship  until  the  child 
reached  tjie  age  of  twenty-one.  That  law  has  been  said  by  a 
great  jurist!  now  dead,  to  be  the  best  law  ever  enacted  by  the  state 
of  Illinois,  effecting  as  it  did  more  good  in  one  year  than  the  crim- 
inal court  by  its  punishments  could  effect  in  twenty. 

So  much  for  the  evolution  of  the  law.  As  to  development  in 
the  practice  and  procedure,  it  may  be  said  that  the  practice  was  as 
follows:  When  a  child,  having  offended  by  violating  a  state  law, 
was  arrested,  the  state  demanded  the  same  vindication  and  repara- 
tion from  him  as  from  an  adult  of  twenty-five.  For  example,  if  a 
child  of  twelve  years  of  age  who  had  stolen  an  article  worth  $i  5  was 

*  Illinois  Revised  Statutes  (1909),  chap.  38.     Criminal  Code,  sec.  283. 
t  See  Illinois  Revised  Statutes  (1909),  chap.  23,  sections  169-190c. 
J  Judge  Murray  F.  Tuley. 

204 


TESTIMONY   OF  JUDGE    PINCKNEY 

arrested,  he  was  put  in  jail  or  admitted  to  bail,  as  the  case  might 
be;  indicted  before  the  grand  jury;  asked  to  plead  to  an  indictment 
that  he  did  not  understand;  arraigned  as  common  adult  criminals 
were  then  and  are  now  arraigned;  was  tried  before  a  petit  jury  of 
twelve  men;  arid,  if  they  decided  that  he  had  violated  the  law,  the 
child  was  treated  as  a  criminal  and  was  subjected  to  whatever 
penalty  the  statute  provided. 

Attention  should  also  be  called  to  the  development  in  pro- 
vision for  the  custodial  care  of  the  delinquent  child.  Before  July 
i,  1899,  when  a  twelve-year-old  child  was  arrested,  that  child  was 
put  in  jail  in  company  with  adult  criminals,  robbers,  thieves,  and 
murderers.  He  was  called  a  criminal  and  treated  as  such  whether 
he  was  finally  so  adjudged  or  not.  Before  trial,  then,  even  if  he 
were  not  guilty,  he  had  been  contaminated  morally,  mentally,  and 
physically  by  association  with  adult  criminals.  Before  1891,  if 
he  was  found  guilty  he  was  sent  to  the  state  penitentiary.  In  that 
year  the  state  decided  that  there  should  be  a  boys'  penitentiary, 
and  as  a  result  the  state  reformatory  was  established  at  Pontiac, 
to  which  boys  were  sent  after  July  i,  1891 .  Such  was  the  practice 
with  regard  to  the  custodial  care  of  children  up  to  1899.  Since 
that  time  the  child  has  not  been  put  in  jail.  He  is  brought  in  by 
his  parents,  the  case  is  heard  often  without  restraint  of  the  child's 
liberty,  and  if  the  child  is  found  not  guilty,  or  if  he  is  found  not  to 
be  a  delinquent — because  you  would  not  consider  or  treat  him  as  a 
criminal — he  goes  home  with  his  parents.  He  is  attended  at  the 
trial  by  his  parents,  and  often  by  all  his  family.  If  he  is  found  to 
have  violated  some  section  of  the  juvenile  law,  he  is  sent  to  a  school 
or  to  a  farm,  or  taken  care  of  on  probation,  or  committed  to  an 
institution. 

A  result  of  the  legislation  of  1899  and  1907  is  that  the  juvenile 
court  takes  exclusive  jurisdiction  of  children,  boys  under  seventeen, 
and  girls  under  eighteen,  and  stands  in  relation  to  the  children  not 
as  a  power,  demanding  vindication  or  reparation,  but  as  a  sorrow- 
ing parent  anxious  to  find  out  and  remove  all  the  causes  of  de- 
linquency and  to  reform  the  child. 

The  law  as  enacted  in  1899  includes  in  its  application  de- 
pendent, neglected,  and  delinquent  children. 

Q.  How  are  dependent  and  delinquent  children  in  the  county 

205 


THE    DELINQUENT   CHILD    AND   THE    HOME 

brought  into  the  juvenile  court  at  the  present  time,  and  how  are 
they  discovered? 

A.  They  are  generally  brought  in  by  their  parents  on  sum- 
mons; occasionally,  though  very  rarely — two  or  three  times  out  of 
a  hundred — on  warrant.  Sometimes  when  a  warrant  is  issued,  it 
is  done  at  the  request  of  the  parents.  At  other  times  warrants  are 
issued  by  order  of  the  court  in  the  necessities  of  the  case,  when  the 
child  does  not  appear  or  is  liable  not  to  appear.  They  are  dis- 
covered chiefly  as  the  result  of  complaints  sent  in  by  outsiders,  and 
of  reports  to  the  juvenile  court  from  members  of  its  probation  de- 
partment. The  outsiders  are  usually  neighbors  in  the  vicinity  of 
the  child's  home.  Sometimes  relatives,  collateral  relatives,  who 
think  that  the  father  or  mother  is  not  taking  proper  care,  or,  when 
the  father  and  mother  are  dead,  that  other  relatives  are  not  taking 
proper  care,  make  complaint  to  the  complaint  department  of  the 
court.  The  complaints  are  investigated  before  the  child  is  brought 
into  court.  In  many  instances,  investigation  shows  that  it  is  not 
necessary  to  bring  the  child  into  court. 

No  police  work  is  done  by  probation  officers,  because,  if  a 
probation  officer  is  afterwards  to  visit  the  child's  home  and  to  have 
the  care  of  the  child  or  to  exercise  any  influence  over  the  parents, 
it  would  be  bad  policy  for  that  officer  to  act  as  a  policeman  and 
thereby  incur  the  enmity  and  unfriendly  feeling  of  the  very 
people  he  desires  to  help. 

Q.  What  is  the  relation  of  the  police  force  of  the  city  or 
county  to  the  bringing  in  of  complaints  of  juvenile  offenders? 

A.  The  members  of  the  regular  police  force  of  the  county 
seldom  bring  children  directly  into  the  court.  The  duty  of  the 
police,  under  instructions  from  the  juvenile  court  and  the  proba- 
tion department,  is  to  report  to  the  probation  officer  for  the  district 
in  which  the  regular  city  policeman  operates;  and  through  the 
regular  probation  officer  the  matter  is  brought  into  court.  Some- 
times a  city  policeman  finds  children  wandering  on  the  street  at 
night  or  he  may  find  emergency  cases  where  no  one  is  present  to 
look  after  a  child.  He  then  brings  these  children  directly  to  the 
detention  home  and  leaves  them  there  in  the  care  of  the  super- 
intendent who  is  in  charge  of  the  home,  instead  of  taking  them  to  a 
jail  or  to  a  police  station  to  be  locked  up.  The  duty  of  the  police- 

206 


TESTIMONY   OF   JUDGE    PINCKNEY 

man  when  such  a  child  is  brought  to  the  detention  home  is  to 
specify  in  writing  the  nature  of  the  trouble,  the  name  of  the  child, 
the  name  and  address  of  the  parents,  and  the  occasion  for  bringing 
the  child  to  the  detention  home. 

Q.  Do  all  the  complaints  result  in  the  child's  being  brought 
into  court? 

A.  I  think  not  more  than  25  percent  of  the  complaints  made 
result  in  the  children  being  brought  into  court.  These  investiga- 
tions take  a  great  deal  of  time  and  strength;  but  in  my  opinion  it 
it  better  that  ten  mistakes  be  made  through  the  sending  in  of  un- 
necessary complaints  or  ten  unnecessary  investigations  followed 
out,  than  that  one  girl  should  be  lost  to  good  citizenship  and  go  to 
the  red  light  district  through  our  inactivity.  I  would  rather  have 
my  probation  officer  do  extra  work  and  make  extra  trips  than  have 
one  out  of  fifty  girls  or  one  out  of  fifty  boys  go  wrong  or  fall  by 
the  wayside  for  lack  of  active  and  earnest  effort  in  looking  after 
their  interests.  In  some  cases  it  is  necessary  to  bring  the  father  and 
mother  and  the  children  into  my  chambers  on  conference  day,  and 
the  difficulties  are  adjusted  in  that  way.  Or,  if  the  complaint  is 
not  well  founded,  it  is  dismissed  and  the  person'who  made  it  is  in- 
formed that  there  is  no  reason  for  bringing  the  children  into  court. 
That  is,  many  cases  are  settled  in  my  chambers,  so  that  they  do  not 
become  court  cases;  and  many  cases  are  settled  out  of  court.  The 
older  probation  officers,  who  have  had  considerable  experience,  talk 
the  matter  over  with  the  parents  and  consult  me  or  the  chief  pro- 
bation officer;  and  a  decision  is  reached  so  that  the  officer  can 
settle  it  without  any  court  trial. 

With  reference  to  the  disposition  of  these  cases,  it  should  be 
said  in  the  first  place  that  there  are  very  few  cases  that  are  dis- 
missed. There  are  few  cases  brought  into  court  in  which  something 
cannot  be  done  for  the  child  by  the  friendly  visitation  of  a  proba- 
tion officer.  There  is,  therefore,  very  rarely  an  actual  dismissal  of 
a  case.  The  great  bulk  of  the  cases  are  continued.  This  disposi- 
tion by  continuance  is  made  upon  hearing  the  case,  if  it  becomes 
evident  to  the  court,  after  hearing  the  probation  officer's  report 
and  any  testimony  submitted  by  the  relatives  or  those  interested 
on  either  side,  that  it  is  not  necessary  even  to  place  the  child  on 
trial.  All  that  the  youngster,  girl  or  boy,  needs  is  a  little  fatherly 

207 


THE    DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND   THE   HOME 

advice,  and  a  lecture,  if  you  please, — sometimes  fairly  severe, — 
warning  the  boy  that  he  must  do  differently  or  the  girl  that  she  must 
do  differently,  and  that  the  repetition  of  the  practice  that  has 
brought  the  child  into  court  will  inevitably  mean  that  he  would 
either  be  put  on  probation  or  sent  to  an  institution.  The  effort  is, 
so  far  as  my  practice  has  been  in  the  juvenile  court,  not  to  make  a 
record  against  a  child  until  it  is  absolutely  necessary. 

Q.  What  is  the  usual  order  of  probation,  or  placing  the  child 
on  probation? 

A.  I  shall  first  state  the  practice  with  dependent  children. 
The  statute  provides  three  orders  under  which  dependent  children 
may  be  placed.  First,  there  is  the  order  for  friendly  visitation,  or 
rather  a  continuance  of  the  child  at  home,  subject  to  the  friendly 
visitation  of  a  regular  probation  officer.  Second,  if  the  parents 
consent  or  if  they  are  unfit  and  improper  guardians  of  the  child, 
the  court  may  appoint  some  reputable  citizen  guardian  of  such 
child  and  order  the  guardian  to  place  the  child  in  some  suitable 
home.  The  third  order  provided  for  by  the  law  is  the  order  of 
commitment  to  an  institution,  when  a  child  is  committed  instead 
of  being  placed  on  probation.  Those  are  the  three  general  orders. 

The  orders  for  delinquent  children  are  very  similar,  with  one 
exception.  The  person  to  whom  the  child  is  sent  instead  of  being 
called  a  "reputable  citizen"  is  called  by  the  statute  "a  proper  per- 
son." I  could  never  quite  see  the  distinction.  That  is,  under 
the  statute  the  child  may  be  subject  to  the  friendly  visitation  of 
the  probation  officer,  or,  if  delinquent,  paroled  to  a  proper  person, 
or,  if  dependent,  to  a  reputable  citizen,  or  be  committed  to  an 
institution.  And  I  might  add  one  other  provision  of  the  law.  It 
is  provided*  that  the  court  may,  at  its  discretion,  dismiss  the  pro- 
ceedings instituted  against  a  delinquent  and  hold  the  child  over 
to  the  criminal  court  for  the  jurisdiction  of  that  court.  That  is 
very  seldom  done,  but  it  is  sometimes  necessary.  A  child,  a  boy 
especially,  sometimes  becomes  so  thoroughly  vicious  and  is  so 
repeatedly  an  offender  that  it  would  not  be  fair  to  the  other  chil- 
dren in  a  delinquent  institution  who  have  not  arrived  at  his  age  of 
depravity  and  delinquency  to  have  to  associate  with  him.  On 

*  Juvenile  Court  Law,  sec.  9.  Illinois  Revised  Statutes  (1909),  chap.  23, 
sec.  177. 

208 


TESTIMONY  OF  JUDGE    PINCKNEY 

very  rare  and  special  occasions,  therefore,  children  are  held  over 
on  a  mittimus  to  the  criminal  court. 

The  statute  also  provides  for  the  appointment  of  a  guardian 
with  authority  to  appear  and  consent  to  adoption.  Such  an  order 
for  the  appointment  of  a  guardian  is  about  half  way  between  the 
probation  order  and  the  commitment  order.  It  has  some  of  the 
elements  of  both.  It  is  not  quite  so  strong  as  a  commitment  order, 
in  that  it  does  not  restrain  the  liberty  of  the  child  as  the  commit- 
ment order  does,  and  it  is  stronger  than  the  probation  order  be- 
cause of  the  added  supervision  and  authority  given  to  the  guardian 
over  the  child,  as  compared  with  the  authority  of  the  probation 
officer.  This  order  only  nominates  a  guardian  with  authority  to 
appear  and  consent  to  adoption.  No  child  can  be  adopted  even 
after  the  entry  of  that  order,  unless  a  proper  petition  has  been  filed 
in  one  of  our  other  courts, — courts  of  record, — and  a  state  of  facts 
established  under  our  adoption  act  that  will  authorize  the  peti- 
tioner to  take  the  child  for  adoption.  There  are  six  causes  on 
which  the  child  can  be  adopted. 

I  should  also  refer  to  the  power  possessed  by  the  court  to 
enter  an  order  to  commit  a  child  to  a  hospital  when  the  child  is 
suffering  from  a  disease. 

Q.  Referring  to  the  order  placing  the  child  on  probation 
subject  to  the  friendly  visits  of  a  probation  officer,  what  is  that 
usually  called? 

A.  Simply  the  ordinary  order  of  probation,  where  the  chief 
probation  officer  or  a  member  of  his  staff  whom  he  may  from  time 
to  time  designate,  visits  the  child  and  reports  the  child's  condition 
and  the  way  in  which  he  is  carrying  out  his  probation.  These  are 
the  cases  of  which  the  probation  department  takes  charge. 

Q.  Who  are  these  reputable  citizens,  Judge,  who  are  placed 
in  charge  of  children  by  orders  of  the  court? 

A.  \  do  not  know  that  I  can  add  anything  to  the  obvious 
meaning  of  the  word  "  reputable"  as  it  is  used  in  the  statute.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  number  of  reputable  citizens  whom  I  use  to  any 
extent  is  limited  to  about  five.  Now  and  then,  however,  some 
particular  case  may  come  to  the  court  in  which  the  parents  are 
desirous  of  having  some  prominent  citizen  of  their  acquaintance 
appointed  who  knows  the  son  or  daughter  and  in  whom  the  parents 

209 


THE    DELINQUENT   CHILD   AND   THE    HOME 

have  confidence;  and  I  appoint  that  person  as  a  "  reputable  citizen" 
to  take  charge  of  the  child.  That  is  not  the  usual  case,  however. 
Those  of  whose  services  I  most  commonly  avail  myself,  are,  nam- 
ing them  in  the  order  most  used,  I  should  say,  Father  Quille  and 
Father  Leddy  of  the  Working  Boys'  Home  on  Jackson  Boulevard, 
Mrs.  Shannon  for  the  girls,  Mr.  Colby  of  the  Illinois  Children's 
Home  and  Aid  Society,  and  Mr.  Detloff. 

None  of  these,  except  Mrs.  Shannon,  who  is  a  regular  pro- 
bation officer  as  well  as  a  reputable  citizen,  is  paid  by  the  county. 
They  all,  however,  have  commissions  as  probation  officers,  the  four 
men  being  volunteer  probation  officers. 

Q.  Will  you  describe  the  character  of  the  work  done  by  the 
four  men  mentioned  as  volunteer  probation  officers  as  well  as 
reputable  citizens? 

A.  The  boys'  home  on  Jackson  Boulevard  is  well  known. 
We  have  at  the  head  of  that  institution  Father  Quille,  with  a  very 
able  assistant,  Father  Leddy.  Father  Leddy — this  is  a  Catholic 
institution — has  seldom  if  ever  since  I  went  to  the  court  in  1908 
missed  a  day  at  court  during  the  sessions,  except  at  such  times 
as  he  was  away  on  vacation,  when  Father  Quille  took  his  place. 
When  I  first  went  there,  Father  Quille  attended  the  court  ses- 
sions; but  his  duties  in  the  Working  Boys'  Home  became  such 
that  he  was  required  at  the  institution,  and  Father  Leddy  then  at- 
tended the  court.  These  two  men  place  children  in  private  fami- 
lies. They  have  a  wide  experience  and  a  wide  acquaintance  among 
Catholic  families  who  are  ready  at  their  request  to  take  Catholic 
boys  into  their  homes.  I  always  feel  very  confident  when  a  child 
is  placed  with  them  that  that  child  will  be  properly  handled. 

I  might  add  this,  if  I  may  be  allowed  to  preface  with  my  own 
experience  in  a  way.  I  found  upon  going  to  the  juvenile  court, 
after  I  had  been  there  less  than  six  months,  that  there  were  a  great 
number  of  what  I  call  semi-delinquent  boys  and  girls,  not  bad 
enough  to  be  sent  to  a  delinquent  institution  and  yet  too  bad  to  be 
sent  to  a  dependent  institution.  Those  children  1  felt  would  not 
be  properly  handled  and  cared  for,  if  they  were  committed  directly 
to  a  delinquent  institution  where  they  were  to  associate  with  older 
delinquent  children  and  older  offenders,  in  many  instances  re- 
peated offenders;  and  so  I  evolved  a  plan  for  handling  those  chil- 

210 


TESTIMONY   OF   JUDGE    PINCKNEY 

dren  by  giving  them  an  opportunity  to  improve  without  commit- 
ment. I  turned  to  the  section  of  the  juvenile  court  law  that  gave 
me  the  right  to  select  reputable  citizens  to  do  that  work.  That 
was  the  only  relief  offered  to  those  children,  and  under  that  law  and 
under  those  sections  I  have  selected  these  people,  to  whom  I  have 
referred  as  reputable  citizens,  to  handle  this  class  of  children.  The 
cases  paroled  to  them,  then,  are  usually  cases  of  semi-delinquent, 
sometimes  dependent,  children,  who  are  to  be  placed  in  homes  and 
are  to  be  given  an  opportunity  to  make  good  without  being  sent  to 
institutions. 

Of  Mr.  Colby,  whose  work  I  have  observed  since  December, 
1908,  1  should  say  that  the  character  of  his  work,  too,  is  good;  and 
I  might  add  that  during  the  current  year  Mr.  Colby  has  shown  in 
the  general  handling  of  his  cases  an  ability  such  as  I  have  not  yet 
recognized  in  any  other  officer  who  has  dealt  with  delinquent  chil- 
dren. During  the  current  year  he  has  handled  something  like  1 13 
children  of  this  class.  He  has  been  necessarily  in  touch  with  me 
often  in  this  work,  because,  through  the  kindness  of  some  men, 
bankers  and  others,  interested  in  this  work  in  Chicago,  money  has 
been  placed  in  one  of  the  large  banks  here  in  my  name  as  trustee 
with  authority  to  draw  on  it  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  transporta- 
tion of  these  semi-delinquent  boys  and  girls  when  Mr.  Colby  places 
them,  with  the  consent  of  their  parents,  on  farms  in  Cook  County 
and  in  adjoining  counties.  I  should  like  to  say  that  the  report  on 
these  children  for  the  current  year  shows  that  about  75  per  cent  of 
them  have  made  good  in  every  particular.  And  of  the  remainder, 
their  cases  are  at  least  very  hopeful;  they  are  not  considered  bad 
children  at  all.  He  has  reported  one  instance  of  a  boy  who  is  now 
and  has  been  for  some  time  earning  $25  a  month,  who  was  looked 
upon  as  very  delinquent — a  boy  whom  apparently  nobody  could 
handle.  There  are  five  at  this  time  earning  $20  a  month.  There 
have  been  as  many  as  ten  earning  $10  a  month,  and  Mr.  Colby  re- 
ported one  boy  in  particular  who,  during  the  time  he  had  him  under 
his  control  on  a  farm  in  this  state,  had  turned  over  $250  to  his 
mother,  and  after  her  death  had  paid  all  the  expenses  of  her  burial. 
Now  understand  that  in  these  cases  where  children  are  paroled  to 
our  "reputable  citizens"  under  the  law,  I  should  say  that  95  per 
cent  and  perhaps  a  larger  percentage  are  so  placed  with  the  consent 

21  I 


THE    DELINQUENT  CHILD    AND   THE    HOME 

of  the  parents,  and  that  the  father  and  mother  remain  in  touch  with 
the  children,  knowing  where  they  are,  receiving  reports  direct  from 
Mr.  Colby,  and  also  in  many  cases  visiting  the  farmers  with  whom 
the  children  are  placed. 

Q,  What  is  the  character  of  Mr.  Colby's  treatment  of  cases 
of  that  sort? 

A.  The  treatment  of  any  delinquent  boy  or  girl  is  more  or 
less  a  matter  of  a  personal  equation.  You  are  dealing  withajiuman 
soul  and  not  with  a  piece  of  merchandise.  You  cannot  define  or 
lay  down  any  set  of  rules  by  which  you  can  say  to  the  officer, 
"You  have  to  do  thus  and  so  with  a  child."  That  "personal 
equation  "  is  what  makes  a  poor  or  a  good  officer.  1 1  can  be  deter- 
mined only  when  the  officer  comes  in  actual  contact  with  the  child. 
That  is  all  I  can  say  about  it.  You  understand  that  as  much  as  I 
do.  As  a  general  rule,  Mr.  Colby  places  nearly  all  the  children 
paroled  to  him  on  farms  in  the  country. 

Mr.  Detloff,  who  is  a  German  citizen  living  out  among  a 
population  of  German  farmers,  handles  a  class  of  cases  a  little 
different  from  those  handled  by  Mr.  Colby.  He  takes  boys  whose 
only  resource  is  work  with  their  hands.  They  are  laborers;  they 
have  to  work  hard;  and  he  places  them  and  keeps  them  employed 
and  looks  after  them  on  farms.  When  I  come  to  the  place  where  I 
seem  obliged  to  commit  a  child  to  an  institution,  and  the  mother 
and  father  are  there,  and  I  am  still  reluctant  to  give  up  the  hope 
of  not  making  a  record  against  the  boy,  I  say  to  the  father  and 
mother,  "Are  you  willing  that  I  should  place  this  boy  on  a  farm, 
give  him  a  job  through  the  winter  or  through  the  summer,  or  for  a 
year,  if  necessary?"  When  they  say  "yes,"  I  introduce  them  to 
Mr.  Colby  or  Mr.  Detloff,  as  the  emergency  of  the  case  may  de- 
mand, and  with  their  consent  the  child  is  sent  to  one  of  these  places 
in  charge  of  Mr.  Detloff  or  Mr.  Colby.  If  I  am  in  doubt  whether 
or  not  it  is  possible  for  the  boy  to  make  good  under  those  conditions, 
I  tell  him,  "  Under  no  circumstances  run  away," — although  some 
of  them  do.  "  If  you  are  not  satisfied  with  the  farm  or  with  the 
home  in  which  you  are  placed,  report  to  Mr.  Colby  or  to  Mr.  Det- 
loff, and  he  will  make  a  change  for  you  and  give  you  another  place; 
but  don't  run  away.  Report  to  them  first.  Of  course,  if  you 
cannot  get  to  them,  come  directly  to  the  court." 

212 


TESTIMONY   OF   JUDGE    PINCKNEY 

If  they  find  it  is  not  possible  to  make  it  go,  or  if  possibly  they 
do  not  like  the  family,  they  are  brought  back  by  Mr.  Colby  or  Mr. 
Detloff,  and  I  change  the  order  which  has  been  made.  Some- 
times a  boy  is  brought  in  after  he  has  been  out  in  the  country  for  a 
year,  and  his  mother,  even  if  she  has  received  money  from  him  right 
along,  may  still  want  him  back  in  Chicago  in  spite  of  the  bad  en- 
vironment from  which  he  had  been  taken.  Sometimes  I  listen  to 
the  mother,  although  I  should  keep  the  boy  on  the  farm,  and  say, 
"All  right,  my  boy,  I  will  give  you  a  trial  at  home  now,  and  see, 
after  having  had  a  lot  of  good  air  and  a  lot  of  experience  out  in  the 
country,  whether  you  can  stand  up  against  the  old  environment 
and  your  old  associates.  If  you  can,  all  right."  Then  I  release 
him  from  the  probation  order  or  the  condition  of  parole  and  let  him 
go  back  home. 

Q.  What  is  done  by  the  court  with  regard  to  requiring  a  re- 
port from  these  reputable  citizens  whom  you  named,  especially  the 
four  who  are  not  regular  probation  officers? 

A.  No  report  is  required  by  the  court  from  these  reputable 
citizens.  I  have  always  thought  the  act  meant  that  when  a  child 
is  placed  in  the  hands  of  a  reputable  citizen  the  citizen  should  be  of 
such  standing  and  character  as  to  be  able  to  handle  the  problem  of 
the  custody  and  welfare  of  that  child.  I  could  not,  of  course,  say 
to  a  regular  probation  officer,  "  I  have  paroled  a  child  to  this  or 
that  reputable  citizen;  you  go  and  look  the  situation  over,  make 
inquiries,  visit  the  child  and  the  home,  and  find  out  whether  or  not 
the  reputable  citizen  handles  that  child  properly."  No  reputable 
citizen  in  Chicago  would  take  it  upon  himself  or  herself  to  do  this 
work  under  such  conditions.  The  result  would  be  an  interference 
by  others  with  the  control  by  the  "citizen."  Then,  too,  people 
with  whom  children  are  placed  are  especially  sensitive  about  hav- 
ing probation  officers  coming  to  their  homes  and  making  inquiries. 
It  attracts  the  attention  of  the  neighbors  and  usually  has  a  bad 
effect  on  the  case.  This  means,  of  course,  that  the  reputable 
citizens  become  responsible  for  the  homes  selected.  If  perchance, 
the  court  should  select  a  citizen  who  proved  to  be  not  worthy  and 
not  reputable,  the  onus  would  probably  fall  upon  the  court,  because 
the  selection  is  left  to  the  discretion  of  the  court.  And  yet,  as  I 
said  before,  there  can  be  no  specific  requirements  other  than  that 
15  213 


THE    DELINQUENT   CHILD    AND   THE    HOME 

the  home  should  be  the  home  of  people  who  are  fit  to  be  entrusted 
with  the  custody  of  children — of  people  who  are  honest,  moral,  of 
good  Christian  training,  and  of  good  reputation. 

******** 

We  also  parole  children  to  citizens  who  are  officers  of  institu- 
tions. We  have  an  institution  known  as  the  Angel  Guardian 
Orphan  Asylum,  and  another,  St.  Vincent's  Orphan  Asylum;  there 
are  also  the  Louise  Home  and  others.  In  those  cases  it  is  the 
custom,  at  the  request  of  the  institutions,  instead  of  making  a 
commitment  direct  to  the  institution,  to  make  the  order  to  the 
individual  who  is  president  or  superintendent  of  the  institution. 

The  State  Board  of  Public  Charities  act  and  also  the  Board 
of  Administration  act  passed  in  1909  provide  for  the  visitation  of 
all  charitable  institutions  in  this  state  by  representatives  of  the 
two  boards  respectively,  and  the  certification  of  those  institutions 
that  are  deemed  fit  and  proper  custodians  of  children.  They  are 
looked  upon  thereafter  as  accredited  institutions  to  which  the  ju- 
venile court  may  commit  children.  Besides  this,  the  juvenile 
court  law  provides*  that  a  report  of  these  institutions  may  be 
asked  for  by  the  juvenile  court.  There  is  also  a  provision,  as  far 
as  Cook  County  is  concerned,  that  the  county  judge  shall  appoint  a 
visitation  committee,  which  shall  visit  these  institutions.  Under 
this  authority  in  the  juvenile  court  law  I  have  sometimes  required 
reports  from  institutions.  If  complaint  is  made  of  the  conduct  of 
an  institution,  the  person  making  the  complaint  is  asked  to  file  by 
petition  or  otherwise  a  specification  of  his  charges.  The  superin- 
tendent is  then  summoned,  or  a  notice  is  served  by  the  juvenile 
court  on  the  institution,  and  an  investigation  is  made  and  testi- 
mony heard;  and  the  court  acts  according  to  the  developments  in 
the  case.  I  might  say,  further,  that  it  has  been  frequently  my 
province  to  call  upon  the  state  agent,  Mr.  Virden,  who  is  now  the 
agent  of  the  Board  of  Administration  and  who  was  the  agent  of 
the  State  Board  of  Public  Charities,  to  investigate  certain  institu- 
tions to  which  my  attention  had  been  called,  for  the  purpose  of 
determining  for  me  whether  or  not  the  institution  is  creditable  and 
whether  or  not  the  court  should  send  children  to  it.  Mr.  Virden 
has  always  promptly  attended  to  these  cases.  I  do  not,  however, 

*  Sec.  96.     Illinois  Revised  Statutes  (1909),  chap.  23,  sec.  1776. 
214 


TESTIMONY   OF   JUDGE    PINCKNEY 

place  the  matter  of  inspection  in  the  hands  of  the  probation  de- 
partment, because  that  department  has  no  authority  in  the  matter. 

It  should  be  noted  that  the  industrial  school  for  girls  act 
and  the  manual  training  school  for  boys  act  cover  that  situation 
fully.  As  has  been  said,  one  was  passed  in  1879  and  the  other  in 
1883,  and  the  only  visitation  relied  upon  under  those  separate  acts 
was  by  the  State  Board  of  Commissioners  of  Public  Charities, 
and,  since  that  has  been  abolished  and  the  act  creating  it  repealed, 
by  visitors  authorized  under  the  Board  of  Administration  act 
passed  in  1909. 

A  distinction  should  be  made  between  the  power  of  visitation 
and  the  power  to  require  reports,  because  under  the  juvenile  court 
law  I  have  a  right  to  demand  a  report,  but  none  to  insist  upon  a 
visitation  by  my  agent  or  by  the  probation  department  or  by  any- 
one connected  with  the  juvenile  court.  The  probation  depart- 
ment therefore  has  nothing  to  do  with  these  cases  where  the  child 
is  placed  on  probation  to  a  reputable  citizen  who  is  also  an  officer 
of  one  of  these  accredited  institutions..  The  order  is  then  prac- 
tically an  order  of  commitment,  because,  as  in  the  case  of  St.  Vin- 
cent's Orphanage,  the  child  is  in  the  absolute  custody  and  care  of 
the  Orphanage.  The  same  is  true  with  the  Angel  Guardian's 
Home;  and  also  with  the  Louise  Home.  While  it  is  in  name  a 
probation,  it  is  in  effect  a  commitment  to  an  institution.  The 
only  difference  between  this  order  and  a  commitment  to  an  insti- 
tution is  that  it  gives  a  little  more  latitude  to  the  officer  named,  as 
to  whether  or  not  the  liberty  of  the  child  may  or  may  not  be  re- 
strained by  the  custody  and  care  of  the  institution. 

If  I  may  explain  a  little  further,  the  difference  between  pro- 
bation and  commitment  is  this:  Probation,  according  to  the  mean- 
ing of  the  word,  is  the  act  of  proving;  that  is,  the  child  becomes,  or 
is  thought  to  be,  delinquent,  and  the  mother  and  the  father  say,  and 
the  child  says,  "Give  me  another  chance,  Judge,  and  I  will  be  all 
right;  I  will  do  the  right  thing;  I  will  never  do  this  again."  The 
child  is  then  sent  home  on  probation  to  "prove"  his  character. 
It  is  the  act  of  "  proving"  whether  that  child  can  make  good  or  not. 
That  is  probation.  Commitment  turns  over  to  the  institution  to 
which  the  child  is  sent  the  custodial  care  of  the  child.  This  applies 
both  to  delinquent  and  to  dependent  children.  For  instance,  St. 

215 


THE    DELINQUENT   CHILD   AND   THE    HOME 

Vincent's  is  a  dependent  institution,  and  instead  of  committing  the 
child  to  the  institution  I  commit  him  to  Mr.  Ryan,  a  reputable 
citizen,  the  superintendent.  The  same  is  true  with  regard  to  the 
Angel  Guardian  Orphan  Asylum.  Sister  Bertina  handles  the 
child  and  is  the  guardian  of  the  child.  In  effect,  in  both  cases  the 
child  goes  to  an  institution,  but  there  is  a  little  more  latitude  given 
in  handling  the  child. 

Q.  What  has  the  probation  department  to  do  with  these 
reputable  citizens  who  are  officers  of  the  accredited  institutions? 

A.  Nothing.  The  probation  department  has  nothing  to  do 
with  them.  I  might  add  this,  that  after  some  experience  in  the 
juvenile  court  I  had  taken  up  with  Mr.  Witter  and  discussed  with 
him  the  plan  of  having  these  reputable  citizens  who  were  the  heads 
of  institutions  report  to  the  probation  department  about  these 
children — distinguishing,  bear  in  mind,  the  "reputable  citizen" 
order  as  against  the  commitment  order,  because  I  did  not  consider 
that  I  had  any  right  to  require  reports  from  institutions  to  which 
children  were  committed  under  the  law,  but  I  did  feel  justified  in 
asking  for  a  report  from  these  reputable  citizens.  I  wanted  to  see 
if  we  could  bring  this  about  without  friction  after  nine  years' 
practice  in  the  court  during  which  no  reports  were  required.  It 
had  to  be  brought  about  slowly  and  with  the  consent  of  the  indi- 
viduals, because  if  they  were  to  refuse  I  felt  that  I  could  not  en- 
force it. 

Q.  Has  anything  been  done  along  that  line? 

A.  Yes,  we  have  taken  it  up,  I  should  say,  with  one  or  two 
institutions,  and  are  trying  to  bring  it  about  now. 

Q.  Does  it  require  their  consent  and  co-operation? 

A.  Practically  and  legally  it  does.  I  do  not  think  that  I 
could  enforce  it  if  I  were  to  try  to  force  them  to  do  it,  except  that  I 
could  discontinue  committing  children  to  those  institutions  that 
refused  to  report. 

Q.  As  to  the  order  for  the  appointment  of  the  guardian  that 
you  have  mentioned,  with  a  right  to  consent  to  adoption,  are  there 
any  particular  persons  or  institutions  usually  selected  as  such 
guardians? 

A.  Yes.  In  cases  of  that  kind  the  order  is  generally  to  the 
institutions,  and  it  provides  for  the  appointment  of  the  superin- 

216 


TESTIMONY   OF   JUDGE    PINCKNEY 

tendent  or  some  officer  designated  by  law  to  act  as  guardian  to  the 
child.  This  order  is  between  an  order  of  commitment  and  an  order 
of  probation.  It  is  not  called  an  order  of  commitment  in  that  it 
does  not  restrain  the  liberty.  It  is  more  an  order  of  probation  be- 
cause it  gives  a  person  authority  over  the  custody  and  care  of  the 
child,  not  given  by  an  ordinary  probation  order.  Whenever  a 
child  is  given  to  an  institution  for  adoption,  the  institution  desig- 
nates the  officer  it  desires  to  have  named  as  guardian,  and  the  court 
consents.  I  should  also  say  in  that  connection  that  in  more  than 
half  the  cases  the  consent  of  the  parents  is  given;  generally  the 
consent  of  the  parents  is  secured  because  the  question  of  religion 
comes  in.  In  the  case  of  an  illegitimate  child,  the  mother  is  the 
only  one  required  by  the  law  to  consent. 

Q.  What  has  the  probation  department  to  do  with  these 
guardians  after  they  have  been  appointed? 

A.  Nothing  either  in  law  or  in  practice. 

Q.  You  spoke  awhile  ago  of  another  form  of  order  which  was 
that  of  commitment  to  an  institution.  Will  you  name  some  of  the 
principal  institutions  to  which  you  commit  children,  and  the  sort 
of  children  these  institutions  take? 

A.  Yes.  I  can  name  them  very  readily  because  there  are 
only  five  to  which  children  can  be  committed.  St.  Charles  School 
for  Boys,  at  St.  Charles,  is  a  state  institution  to  which  delinquent 
boys  of  any  religious  belief  may  be  sent.  The  Geneva  School  for 
Girls  is  a  state  institution  to  which  delinquent  girls  are  sent,  re- 
gardless of  the  religious  belief  of  their  parents.  In  the  city  we  have 
the  John  Worthy  School  for  boys,  which  is  an  institution  supported 
by  the  citizens  of  Chicago,  where  boys  are  sent  regardless  of  re- 
ligious belief.  Then  we  have  two  institutions  to  which  delinquent 
girls  are  sent.  One,  a  Catholic  institution  to  which  all  Catholic 
girls  are  sent  except  those  who  under  certain  circumstances  are 
sent  to  Geneva,  is  the  House  of  the  Good  Shepherd;  the  other  is 
the  Chicago  Refuge  for  Protestant  girls.  Those  five  are  the  only 
institutions  to  which  delinquent  children  are  sent  by  the  juvenile 
court. 

For  dependent  children  there  are  neither  state  nor  county 
institutions.  Nor  are  there  any  city  institutions,  so  far.  They 
are  all  semi-private.  You  understand  that  under  the  law  the  court 

217 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND   THE    HOME 

when  called  upon  must  send  a  child  to  an  institution  controlled  by 
persons  who  are  of  the  same  religious  belief  as  the  parents.  Speak- 
ing first  of  the  Catholic  institutions,  there  are  the  Chicago  Indus- 
trial School  for  girls  at  Desplaines  (Feehanville),  and  St.  Mary's 
Training  School  for  Boys  at  the  same  place.  Dependent  boys  and 
dependent  girls  who  are  Catholic  are  committed  to  those  two  in- 
stitutions, generally  speaking.  The  Protestant  school  for  boys  is 
the  Glenwood  Manual  Training  School  Farm  in  the  southeast  por- 
tion of  the  county  near  Chicago  Heights.  Dependent  girls  of  the 
Protestant  faith  are  sent  to  the  Illinois  Industrial  School  at  Park 
Ridge.  In  addition  to  these  institutions  there  are  many  others 
to  which  dependent  boys  and  girls,  Protestant  and  Catholic,  are 
committed  by  the  juvenile  court. 

******** 

Q.  What  is  meant  by  accredited  institutions? 

A.  Accredited  by  the  State  Board  of  Administration,  certi- 
ficates having  been  issued  to  these  institutions  after  visitation  by 
the  Board  of  Administration.  This  is  done  under  the  Board  of 
Administration  Act  of  1909,  which  superseded  and  took  the  place 
of  the  Board  of  Charities  Act.  The  provision  for  the  appointment 
of  a  board  of  visitation  by  the  county  judge  applies  also  to  these 
institutions. 

Q.  Can  the  court  make  investigation  by  visitation  of  them? 

A.  The  board  appointed  by  the  county  judge  and  also  the 
Board  of  Administration  under  the  state  law  can  send  visitation 
committees  and  representatives  to  these  various  institutions  to 
visit  and  inspect.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  Board  of  Administration  to 
issue  annually  a  certificate  accrediting  these  institutions  to  the 
people  at  large  and  to  the  juvenile  court  as  proper  institutions. 

Q.  To  what  extent  have  you  the  power  to  visit  and  inspect 
and  the  power  to  demand  reports  from  this  class  of  institutions? 

A.  The  power  is  not  very  broad,  as  those  reports  can  be 
made  by  affidavit  and  be  within  the  law,  or  officers  can  be  brought 
in  and  called  upon  to  answer  charges  made  or  testimony  offered. 
It  is  only  when  a  complaint  comes  to  me  about  an  institution  that 
I  can  exercise  the  authority  under  the  law  to  call  for  a  report. 
When  the  Board  of  Administration  has  issued  a  certificate  an- 
nually accrediting  that  institution  to  me,  I  feel  that  prima  facie, 

2lS 


TESTIMONY   OF   JUDGE    PINCKNEY 

I  am  justified  in  sending  the  children  there  without  further  inquiry 
or  investigation  on  the  part  of  the  court. 

Q.  Do  I  understand  that  this  power  of  the  court  is  under  that 
section  of  the  law  which  says  a  judge  may  reopen  the  case  of  each 
child  committed? 

A.  No. 

Q.  Is  it  under  that  section? 

A.  No,  an  entirely  different  section. 

Q.  Does  it  empower  the  court  to  this  extent,  that  you  can 
issue  an  order  to  a  certain  institution  of  this  character  that  you 
want  a  monthly  report  or  that  you  want  a  semi-annual  or  annual 
report,  something  of  that  kind? 

A.  No,  I  do  not  do  that. 

Q.  You  have  only  the  power  to  do  it  in  specific  instances? 

A.  In  specific  instances.  For  instance,  if  there  is  a  complaint 
that  the  institution  is  unworthy,  that  the  superintendent  of  that 
institution  is  not  a  fit  person  to  be  appointed  guardian  of  the  chil- 
dren, then  under  the  law  I  call  for  a  report  from  that  institution, 
as  full  a  report  as  I  deem  necessary  in  order  to  get  the  facts  and 
determine  whether  it  is  a  proper  institution  and  whether  the  guar- 
dian named  is  fit.  It  is,  however,  only  in  special  cases  that  I  have 
such  authority. 

Q.  Not  as  a  general  proposition  of  administration? 

A.  Not  as  a  general  proposition  of  administration.  That 
is  not  the  law,  because  it  apparently  provides  for  two  plans  of 
investigation.  One  is  by  the  state  board  and  the  other  is  by  the 
county  court  committee  to  visit  these  institutions  and  report  if 
they  find  anything  wrong.  I  will,  however,  read  section  96,  of  the 
juvenile  law  as  amended  in  1907,  which  is  applicable  to  these 
cases. 

"The  court  may  from  time  to  time  cite  into  court  the  guar- 
dian, institution,  or  association  to  whose  care  any  dependent, 
neglected,  or  delinquent  child  has  been  awarded,  and  require  him 
or  it  to  make  a  full,  true,  and  perfect  report  as  to  his  or  its  doings 
in  behalf  of  such  child;  and  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  such  guardian, 
institution,  or  association  within  ten  days  after  such  citation,  to 
make  such  report  either  in  writing,  verified  by  affidavit,  or  verbally 
under  oath  in  open  court,  or  otherwise  as  the  court  shall  direct; 
and  upon  hearing  such  report,  with  or  without  further  evidence, 

219 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

the  court  may,  if  it  see  fit,  remove  such  guardian  and  appoint 
another  in  its  stead,  or  take  such  child  away  from  such  institution 
or  association  and  place  it  in  another,  or  restore  such  child  to  the 
custody  of  its  parents  or  former  guardian  or  custodian." 

That  is,  under  this  section  I  can  demand  a  report  on  the  evi- 
dence heard  and  testimony  before  me  as  to  the  character  and  fitness 
of  an  institution  to  have  the  care  of  children.  If  the  court  thinks 
that  the  institution  is  not  a  proper  institution  to  have  the  custody 
of  the  dependent  or  delinquent  child,  or  that  the  superintendent 
who  is  named  as  guardian  is  not  a  fit  person,  I  can  not  only  remove 
the  child  but  I  can  call  the  attention  of  the  State  Board  of  Control 
to  the  situation,  and  they  can  act  in  the  case  of  the  institution, 
although  I  myself  have  no  authority.  I  could,  however,  prevent 
the  sending  of  any  more  children  to  that  institution. 

Q.  Is  it  your  judgment,  Judge,  that  that  section  is  not  broad 
enough  for  you  to  exercise,  say,  through  some  of  the  agents  or 
officers  of  the  court,  administrative  jurisdiction  over  those  places? 
For  instance,  it  says  that  "the  court  from  time  to  time."  Suppose 
you  should  consider  as  from  time  to  time  once  a  month? 

A.  I  do  not  think  that  is  the  proper  construction;  I  have  not 
so  construed  it. 

Q.  Your  construction  is  that  you  are  only  to  act  in  specific 
instances? 

A.  Yes,  when  it  has  been  brought  to  my  attention  by  the 
father,  the  mother,  or  the  relative  consenting  or  not  consenting  or 
objecting  to  a  child's  going  to  an  institution.  If  members  of  the 
family  should  come  in  and  make  complaint  that  a  certain  institu- 
tion is  not  a  proper  institution;  that  the  superintendent,  who  is 
named  as  guardian,  is  unfit  to  act  as  guardian;  I  could  then  call 
for  a  report  and  could  determine  what  should  be  done  in  this 
specific  instance.  If  it  were  called  to  my  attention  on  investiga- 
tion that  the  institution  was  an  institution  to  which  children  should 
not  be  sent,  I  could  refuse  to  commit  them  there.  My  idea  is  that 
I  should  submit  a  report  of  the  matter  to  the  State  Board  of  Con- 
trol and  ask  them  that  the  certificate  accrediting  the  institution  to 
the  court  be  withdrawn.  I  have  done  this  in  the  case  of  two  insti- 
tutions, to  which  certificates  have  been  refused. 

Q.  Judge,  if  a  specific  instance  is  called  to  your  attention  as 

220 


TESTIMONY   OF  JUDGE    PINCKNEY 

you  have  just  stated,  under  section  96,  in  regard  to  an  institution 
to  which  you  have  committed  a  child,  you  can  compel  that  insti- 
tution to  report,  can  you  not? 

A.  Yes. 

Q.  Do  you  believe  that  you  have  a  right  in  order  to  determine 
whether  or  not  they  were  making  a  correct  report  to  you,  to  send 
one  of  your  probation  officers  there  to  ascertain  those  facts?  In 
other  words,  you  are  not  compelled,  are  you,  Judge,  under  this 
section  ge,  to  take  alone  the  words  of  the  testimony,  if  you  please, 
the  evidence  that  may  be  furnished  you  by  the  institution  itself? 
Might  you  not  take  it  into  your  hands  and  send  probation  officers 
there  to  determine  those  facts  in  addition,  under  that  section? 

A.  No,  and  I  will  give  you  my  reason  for  my  construction. 
If  you  are  familiar  with  the  industrial  school  act,  which  has  been 
declared  constitutional  by  our  supreme  court,  you  will  recall  that 
the  act  provides  not  only  that  the  custodial  care  and  guardianship  of 
the  children  shall  be  with  these  institutions  until  the  children  arrive 
at  the  age  fixed  by  the  statute,  but  also  that  the  institution  shall 
have  the  right  under  the  law  to  place  the  children  out  and  control 
their  liberty  and  their  custodial  welfare  up  to  the  age  of  twenty-one, 
in  so  far  as  it  does  not  conflict  with  the  apprenticeship  law.  It  is 
just  this  language  of  the  act  that  leads  me  to  the  construction  I 
have  given  this  section.  The  industrial  school  act  for  girls  no- 
where in  its  sections  provides  for  the  recall  of  one  of  those  children. 
The  manual  training  school  act  for  boys  in  1885  was  so  amended 
that  the  last  section  provides  for  the  restoration  of  the  boy  to  his 
parents.  That  was  the  only  exception  made  in  either  of  these  two 
acts  by  the  legislature,  whereby,  after  a  child  was  once  given  to 
one  of  these  institutions,  he  could  be  recalled  and  restored  to  his 
parents.  Since  I  have  been  in  the  court,  I  have,  notwithstanding 
opposition,  insisted  upon  the  restoration  of  boys  under  that  act, 
and  I  have  always  felt  that  the  industrial  school  act  for  girls  should 
be  amended  so  as  to  give  the  same  right  to  girls.  My  construction 
is  based  on  all  these  laws  taken  together. 

Q.  Do  you  think  that  you  have  overstepped  your  rights, 
Judge,  when  you  have  insisted  on  the  restoration  of  the  boys? 

A.  No,  because  the  last  section  of  the  manual  training  school 
act  provides  that  this  shall  be  done,  but  the  industrial  training 

221 


THE    DELINQUENT   CHILD    AND   THE    HOME 

school  for  girls  act  nowhere  says  that  it  can  be  done.  That  is  why 
I  say,  in  construing  section  9,  that  at  the  same  time  that  you  con- 
strue the  juvenile  court  law  you  have  to  construe  the  other  two 
laws,  one  of  which  was  passed  in  1879  and  the  other  in  1881,  be- 
cause the  supreme  court  has  decided  that  they  are  constitutional. 
And  there  is  no  provision  in  any  one  of  them  whereby  you  can  recall 
the  girls  who  have  been  placed  in  the  industrial  school.  The  distinc- 
tion between  them  is  a  legal  distinction  as  between  girls  and  boys. 

Q.  You  stated  a  moment  ago  that  you  could  refuse  to  commit 
children  to  any  institution  if  you  wished  to. 

A.  Yes. 

Q.  Isn't  that  legal  power  limited  by  the  fact  that  the  number 
of  institutions  is  limited? 

A.  Yes.  I  am  confronted  with  that  situation  very  frequently 
and  especially  with  full  institutions.  The  institutions  are  full  and 
there  may  be  no  opportunity  afforded  for  the  receipt  of  the  child; 
and  then  I  am  absolutely  helpless.  And  I  have  from  time  to  time 
been  obliged  to  send  the  child  back  to  the  old  environment  and  the 
old  home.  This  happens  in  the  case  of  girls  who  should  be  taken 
care  of  by  the  state  of  Illinois,  because  they  are  wards  of  the  state 
who  have  violated  the  laws  of  the  state;  and  no  provision  has  been 
made  by  the  state  to  take  care  of  them.  Under  the  conditions 
which  have  existed  during  my  term  of  service  in  the  juvenile  court, 
I  have  seen  as  many  as  eight  or  ten  girls  waiting  to  be  taken  in  at 
Geneva,  while  Geneva,  which  is  a  state  institution,  refused  to  take 
them  in  because  the  institution  was  full. 

******** 

Q.  Tell  the  Commission  how  frequently  the  children,  whether 
delinquent  or  dependent,  are  placed  in  these  institutions  with  the 
consent  of  the  parents. 

A.  So  far  as  the  dependents  are  concerned,  the  great  bulk 
of  the  children  are  sent  to  institutions  at  the  request  of  their  parents. 

Q.  Are  they  subject  to  the  visitation  of  the  parents? 

A.  Yes.  In  visiting  the  children,  however,  they  have  to 
conform  to  the  rules  of  the  institutions  by  going  on  visiting  days. 
******** 

Q.  When  children  are  recalled  from  an  institution  what  is 
the  process? 

222 


TESTIMONY   OF   JUDGE    PINCKNEY 

A.  They  are  either  placed  on  probation  or  released  per- 
manently. 

Q.  What  is  preliminary  in  the  way  of  practice  and  procedure, 
may  I  ask,  to  their  being  recalled? 

A.  A  petition  is  filed  for  the  release,  or  in  many  cases  the 
representative  of  the  institution  voluntarily  brings  in  the  child 
and  asks  the  court  to  have  him  released. 

Q.  Is  any  notice  required? 

A.  It  is  always  the  practice  to  have  the  mother  or  somebody 
present  in  court  to  receive  the  child.  In  such  cases  there  must  be 
notice,  because  it  is  necessary  under  the  law  to  give  the  institutions 
ten  days'  notice  to  come  in  for  hearing.  We  could  not  even  compel 
them  to  come  in  and  consider  a  release  under  ten  days. 

Q.  What  is  the  practice  with  regard  to  a  change  of  order  in 
the  case  of  the  appointment  of  a  guardian  with  the  right  to  consent 
to  adoption? 

A.  There  would  have  to  be  a  petition  for  rehearing  and  notice 
to  all  parties;  that  is,  to  all  parties  who  are  of  interest  and  to  all 
over  whom  the  court  must  have  jurisdiction  in  order  to  enter  the 
original  order.  Notice  must  be  given  to  the  parties  to  reconsider 
that  order  or  to  change  it  in  any  way. 

******** 

Q.  Passing  now,  Judge,  from  the  order  which  you  make  with 
respect  to  the  custody  of  the  child  to  the  question  of  the  release  of 
the  child;  what  are  the  orders  for  such  release? 

A.  As  I  say,  it  is  either  a  release  on  probation,  or  a  permanent 
release.  And  a  release  granted  by  the  juvenile  court  is  designated 
as  being  a  release  "with  improvement"  or  "without  improvement." 
That  is  the  practice.  There  is  no  legal  definition  of  that  kind,  but 
the  juvenile  court  and  probation  department  have  put  all  the  per- 
manent releases  under  the  head  of  those  with  improvement  and 
those  without  improvement. 

Q.  Is  there  any  special  day  set  for  hearing  such  releases? 

A.  Yes.  The  time  set  is  the  afternoon  of  the  third  Wednes- 
day in  each  month.  After  I  had  been  in  the  court  some  time,  the 
chief  probation  officer,  Mr.  Witter,  brought  to  my  attention  the 
fact  that  the  releasing  of  children  had  been  greatly  neglected. 
And  after  a  great  deal  of  trouble,  because  we  did  not  have  enough 

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THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

help  at  the  time,  we  finally  established  a  plan,  chiefly  through  Mr. 
Witter' s  efforts,  by  which  we  consider  releases  on  the  afternoon 
named.  The  officers  from  the  various  districts  on  this  day  bring 
in  cases  that  they  think  should  be  permanently  released.  Where  it 
was  thought  by  the  court  that  a  child  once  placed  on  probation, 
who  had  made  good  for  a  long  period,  perhaps  one  year  or  two 
years,  as  the  case  may  be,  should  be  encouraged  by  a  perma- 
nent release,  his  name  has  been  wiped  off  the  slate.  Those  cases 
have  been  brought  in  until  I  am  glad  to  say  there  are  no  back 
numbers. 

Q.  What  proportion  of  the  releases  are  "with  improvement" 
today? 

A.  Well,  from  my  experience  in  the  court  I  should  say  from 
85  to  88  per  cent. 

Q.  What  is  the  process  of  marking  them  "with  improvement"? 

A.  On  the  afternoon  of  the  day  set,  the  case  is  brought  in  by 
the  probation  officer  from  his  or  her  district,  and  the  facts  are  set 
out  before  the  court  and  before  the  chief  probation  officer  and  the 
situation  fully  explained.  If  the  court  after  the  explanation  sees 
the  necessity  or  advisability  of  permanent  release,  the  child  is  per- 
manently released  by  the  court,  and  the  order  is  entered  so  that 
a  child  can  say,  "  I  was  once  in  the  juvenile  court  but  I  have  been 
permanently  released  from  it." 

Q.  Is  there  at  that  time  a  general  review  of  the  child's  case? 

A.  There  is  simply  a  summary,  not  a  general  review,  by  the 
probation  officer  of  the  facts  in  the  case,  showing  why  the  boy  or 
the  girl  should  be  released. 

Q.  What  does  this  percentage  of  releases  with  improvement 
indicate  with  regard  to  the  work  of  the  probation  department? 

A.  It  indicates  that  they  are  doing  good  work — not  pretty 
good,  but  good  work.  And  I  may  say  that  the  only  source  of  relief 
which  a  judge  of  a  juvenile  court  has,  is  that  when  he  sees  the  boys 
and  girls  brought  into  court  after  several  years'  probation,  he 
finds  that  85  to  88  per  cent  of  them  have  improved  and  are  going 
to  make  good  citizens.  If  it  were  not  for  that,  we  should  feel,  as  in 
fact  we  do  sometimes,  as  if  we  wanted  to  quit  the  work,  leave  the 
bench  of  the  juvenile  court  and  go  back  to  the  other  court  to  try 
cases  relating  to  personal  property  and  personal  liberty.  I  wish 

224 


TESTIMONY   OF   JUDGE    PINCKNEY 

that  some  of  you  would  come  over  there  and  sit  through  it  awhile. 
You  know  when  you  sit  through  a  whole  year  in  the  court  and 
realize  that  within  those  twelve  months  4100  children  have  come 
into  that  court,  a  great  mass  of  children  from  the  highways  and 
byways  of  this  big  city,  from  the  streets  and  the  alleys,  you  will 
oftentimes  wonder  why  there  are  any  of  them  who  are  not  criminals. 
That  is  the  only  satisfaction  the  court  can  get, — it  is  the  greatest 
satisfaction.  It  makes  it  possible  to  live  over  there  and  carry  on 
the  work. 

I  could  preach  a  sermon  here  if  you  wanted  to  listen  to.it. 
In  the  state  of  Illinois,  you  know,  they  have  been  pursuing  the 
policy  of  trying  to  insure  the  building  after  the  fire.  That  is  a 
fact.  For  a  century  this  great  republic  of  ours  has  been  doing  just 
that.  They  have  studied  belated  measures,  trying  to  cure  the 
disease  after  the  disease  has  eaten  away  the  vitality  of  the  youth. 
Why  do  they  not  study  causes  and  prevention?  Until  we  use  pre- 
ventive measures,  it  is  all  just  simply  palliative,  nothing  else.  You 
cannot  go  to  an  insurance  company  and  get  a  building  insured 
while  it  is  burning,  can  you?  Then  why  should  it  be  possible  to 
try  to  make  good  citizens  out  of  bad  boys?  We  must  study  these 
matters,  go  back  to  marriage  and  divorce  and  such  questions  as 
that,  study  the  influences  around  the  children  and  try  to  make  them 
live  decent  lives.  Then  you  will  have  good  citizens  instead  of  four 
or  five  thousand  boys  and  girls  coming  annually  into  the  juvenile 
court.  You  know  that  I  feel  very  deeply  on  this  subject.  When 
I  remember  what  it  has  been  necessary  to  do  over  there  and  what 
they  are  all  trying  to  do,  and  see  the  good  they  are  trying  to  do,  it 
seems  too  bad  that  people  do  not  wake  up  and  do  away  with  the 
conditions  which  make  delinquents.  We  sleep  peacefully  for  fifty 
years  and  then  we  suddenly  wake  up  and  say,  Oh  my!  Oh  my! 

It  was  not  until  1891  that  we  had  a  reformatory.  Before 
that  time  we  sent  children  down  to  the  state  penitentiary. 
The  establishment  of  the  reformatory  was  the  first  step  and 
it  was  in  the  direction  of  genuine  reformation.  Reformation 
meant  punishing  them  to  bring  about  reform — punishment  to  pre- 
vent the  repetition  of  the  offense  by  the  same  child  or  by  another 
child.  That  was  the  law  and  practice  which  held  this  great  state 
for  nearly  a  century.  Now,  we  have  found  out  that  this  is  not  the 

225 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

proper  course  of  action;  we  have  found  out  that  we  ought  to  go 
down  into  the  sources  of  the  evil  and  study  prevention;  and  you 
can  do  that  only  by  finding  out  what  is  the  cause  of  the  trouble. 
You  cannot  manufacture  a  good  citizen  out  of  a  vicious,  depraved 
child,  or  a  child  brought  up  in  vicious,  depraved,  and  poverty- 
stricken  surroundings. 

Q.  Judge,  what  is  the  function  of  the  detention  home? 

A.  The  detention  home  was  established  under  an  act  of  the 
legislature,  I  think  in  1907,  giving  the  Board  of  Commissioners  of 
Cook  County  in  this  particular  case  the  right  to  establish  a  deten- 
tion home,  where  children  could  be  kept  instead  of  being  sent  to 
jail  or  to  the  police  station  pending  trial.  The  children  are  held 
before  trial  and  are  held  sometimes  after  trial,  while  a  new  home  is 
being  sought  or  until  the  institution  is  ready  to  take  care  of  them. 
There  are  no  probation  officers  in  the  detention  home,  and  the  pro- 
bation department  has  nothing  to  do  with  its  management  except 
to  place  such  children  there  as  cannot  be  provided  for  in  other 
homes  before  the  trial,  and  sometimes  to  leave  them  there  until 
they  can  be  placed  in  homes  after  trial. 

Q.  Does  the  superintendent  take  the  orders  of  the  probation 
officers? 

A.  Only  to  this  extent.  When  a  regular  county  probation 
officer  or  a  regular  city  probation  officer  brings  a  child  to  the  deten- 
tion home,  the  superintendent  receives  the  child  and  tries  to  see 
that  the  child  is  properly  attended  to. 

Q.  Do  they  obey  your  orders — I  mean  the  court  orders? 

A.  Yes,  they  obey.  The  institution,  it  should  be  noticed, 
is  controlled  by  a  certain  code  of  rules  and  regulations  laid  down  by 
the  Board  of  County  Commissioners,  acting,  in  a  sense  I  think, 
with  the  mayor  of  the  city.  The  probation  department  has  nothing 
to  do  with  the  way  it  is  conducted,  or  what  goes  on  up  there.  It 
is  absolutely  under  the  control  of  the  board. 

Q.  How  does  the  court  use  the  home  in  making  its  orders? 

A.  When  the  home  is  used  for  the  detention  of  children  before 
trial,  it  is  generally  so  used  by  the  probation  officer.  I  also  use  it 
in  the  same  way  occasionally.  I  use  it  sometimes  during  a  trial, 
too,  where  a  continuance  is  necessary.  And  once  in  awhile,  after 
trial,  when  I  know  that  it  is  necessary,  for  instance,  to  send  a  boy 

226 


TESTIMONY   OF   JUDGE    PINCKNEY 

out  to  St.  Charles,  and  the  superintendent  of  the  institution  in- 
forms me  that  he  can  not  take  the  child  for  a  week  or  ten  days  or 
maybe  two  weeks,  1  allow  the  child  to  stay  meanwhile  in  the  de- 
tention home.  Then  there  are  cases  where  children  are  kept  there 
for  unusually  long  periods,  although  those  occur  very  rarely 
Such  is  the  case,  for  example,  when  a  young  girl  has  been  raped  by 
some  vicious  citizen — or  vicious  man,  I  do  not  want  to  call  him  a 
citizen;  he  ought  not  to  be — and  I  find  that  it  is  necessary  to  keep 
that  child  in  the  detention  home  under  influences  that  will  prevent 
such  vicious  men,  depraved  relatives,  and  defenders  of  the  man  that 
has  caused  the  trouble,  from  getting  control  of  the  child  and  pre- 
venting the  due  process  of  justice  and  the  prosecution  of  the  man. 

Q.  What  is  that  danger,  Judge? 

A.  The  use  of  money  with  the  parents  and  the  relatives,  and 
the  spiriting  of  the  girl  out  of  the  city  so  that  the  court  may  be 
unable  to  get  her  when  we  want  to  prosecute  the  offender  in  the 
criminal  court.  Sometimes,  when  we  have  to  send  the  child  to  an 
institution,  they  will  get  into  the  institution,  as  was  done  here  re- 
cently, when  they  tried  to  perform  a  marriage  through  the  bars  of 
the  room  where  the  girl  stayed.  Marrying  the  girl  under  our  law 
releases  the  offender  from  prosecution  for  the  crime. 

Q.  Was  that  one  of  the  charitable  institutions,  Judge? 

A.  It  was  one  of  our  delinquent  institutions.  The  parents 
left  their  little  girl  there  and  a  justice  of  the  peace  came  to  perform 
the  ceremony.  It  was  only  the  night  before  that  the  plan  was 
found  out.  Through  Judge  Kavanaugh  the  man  was  sent  to  the 
penitentiary.  It  is  just  that  kind  of  game  that  we  have  to  contend 
against.  Out  of  fifty  cases  of  rape,  there  are  only  a  few  men  ar- 
rested. And  if  you  allowed  the  girls  to  go  home,  there  would  not 
be  one  out  of  fifty  who  could  be  successfully  prosecuted. 

Q.  Are  there  many  continuances? 

A.  Oh  yes,  a  good  many  of  them. 

Q.  And  what  are  these  continuances  for? 

A.  Sometimes,  of  course,  one  side  or  the  other  hasn't  its 
witnesses;  or  the  parties  may  not  be  there,  or  they  cannot  always 
agree  on  the  time  of  trial.  Then  there  are  continuances  for  the 
purpose  of  subjecting  the  child  to  good  influences.  The  case  is 
continued  for  the  sake  of  the  child,  who  is  put  upstairs,  under 

227 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND   THE   HOME 

the  influences  of  the  teachers  and  of  the  superintendent  of  the 
detention  home.  The  child  who  has  lied  comes  down  after  a 
continuance  and  tells  the  whole  truth.  The  purpose  of  such  a 
proceeding  is  to  save  the  child. 

Q.  I  want  to  ask  at  this  point,  Judge,  what  the  court  does  in 
regard  to  dispatching  its  docket  so  that  children  are  not  held  under 
petitions  or  in  the  detention  home  any  longer  than  they  should  be. 

A.  Shortly  after  my  going  over  there  I  established  a  rule  in 
the  probation  department  and  with  the  superintendent  of  the  home, 
whereby  all  probation  officers  when  they  take  children  to  the  de- 
tention home  report  back  within  from  twenty-four  to  twenty-eight 
hours,  and  whereby  the  superintendent  reports  within  twenty-four 
hours  to  the  probation  department  when  a  child  is  brought  in  by 
the  city  police.  Then  the  regular  probation  officer  is  communi- 
cated with  and  put  into  communication  with  the  police,  and  the 
child  is  sent  home  to  the  parents.  If  these  conditions  are  not 
complied  with  within  forty-eight  hours,  the  superintendent  has 
orders  to  send  the  child  home. 

Q.  How  many  days  in  the  week  does  the  juvenile  court  sit? 

A.  \  sit  at  the  court  five  days.  I  am  there  also  on  Saturday 
forenoons  ordinarily,  cleaning  up  the  business,  getting  out  special 
matters  and  special  orders  and  answering  the  correspondence  of 
persons  who  want  to  know  about  particular  cases.  Five  days  I  am 
holding  court  and  trying  cases.  On  Monday,  early  in  the  morning, 
I  hear  dependent  cases  that  require  a  jury.  During  the  last  year, 
except  occasionally  when  the  dependent  docket  became  congested, 
it  was  not  necessary  to  use  more  than  Monday  and  Thursday  fore- 
noons for  these,  but  recently  I  have  been  using  sometimes  as  many 
as  three  days,  and  once,  I  think,  as  many  as  four  days  a  week  for 
dependent  cases.  Friday  I  use  for  truant  children;  the  other 
days,  except  Wednesday  afternoon,  are  for  delinquent  cases.  On 
Wednesday  afternoons,  since  September  last,  I  have  usually  been 
able  to  have  conferences, — of  late,  however,  1  have  not  been  able 
to  devote  Wednesday  afternoons  to  conferences. 

Q.  When  do  you  begin  sitting  over  there? 

A.  In  the  morning  I  am  there  from  half-past  nine  until 
twelve  or  one  o'clock  for  forenoon  calls.  I  take  twenty  minutes 
for  lunch,  and  since  September  last  have  sat  generally  until  five 

228 


TESTIMONY   OF   JUDGE    PINCKNEY 

or  half  past  five  o'clock.     Monday  night  it  is  generally  a  quarter  to 
six  when  1  leave. 

Q.  How  many  cases  do  you  hear  a  day? 

A.  Twenty-five  or  thirty.  I  propose  to  try  twenty  or  twenty- 
five;  that  is,  twenty  new  cases  with  five  continued  cases.  You 
can  start  with  that  idea  and  give  instructions  to  do  that,  but  you 
cannot  confine  the  daily  call  to  that  number. 

Q,  What  is  the  jurisdiction  of  the  probation  department  as 
defined  by  the  juvenile  court  act? 

A.  The  part  of  the  juvenile  court  law  passed  in  1907  which 
defines  the  jurisdiction  of  the  chief  probation  officer  provides,  first, 
that  the  probation  officer  shall  make  investigations  as  required  by 
the  court;  second,  that  he  shall  be  present  in  court  to  represent 
the  interest  of  the  child;  third,  that  he  shall  furnish  such  informa- 
tion from  time  to  time  as  the  judge  may  require;  fourth,  that  he 
shall  take  such  charge  of  the  child  before  and  after  trial  as  the  court 
may  direct.  These  four  provisions  are  required  by  the  amendment. 

Q.  What  are  the  investigations  that  you  mentioned  first? 

A.  They  are  investigations,  generally  speaking,  made  by  the 
probation  department  prior  to  the  bringing  in  of  the  child  or  prior 
to  the  summoning  of  the  parents  to  bring  in  the  child.  They  are 
generally  made  on  complaint  sent  to  the  complaint  department  by 
neighbors  and  acquaintances,  as  I  have  already  said,  to  see  if  it  is 
not  possible  to  adjust  the  matter  out  of  court;  or,  where  a  home  is 
alleged  to  be  unfit,  to  make  it  fit;  or,  where  the  parents  are  charged 
with  being  improper  custodians,  to  see  that  they  change  their 
habits  and  become  proper  custodians,  so  that  the  case  may  not  be 
brought  into  court.  That  is  my  interpretation  of  what  is  meant  by 
the  "investigation  required  by  the  court." 

Q.  What  rules  does  the  court  lay  down  in  respect  to  the 
making  of  these  investigations? 

A.  There  are  no  written  rules;  no  definite  rules  other  than 
that  the  officer  should  make  an  investigation  covering  the  home,  the 
parents,  the  child,  the  history  of  the  parents  of  the  child,  and  of  the 
environment,  and  should  ascertain  the  facts  alleged  in  the  com- 
plaint sent  in  by  the  neighbors  or  whosoever  may  make  the  com- 
plaint. After  the  complaint  comes  in,  an  officer  goes  out  and  makes 
the  investigation  at  the  request  of  or  by  the  direction  of  the  chief 
16  229 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND   THE   HOME 

probation  officer;  and  when  the  facts  have  been  ascertained,  if 
there  is  any  question  as  to  whether  the  child  should  be  brought  in  on 
the  complaint, — because  there  may  be  a  difference  of  opinion  be- 
tween the  officer  and  the  parties, — the  matter  may  be  brought 
before  me.  If  the  chief  probation  officer  cannot  settle  it,  it  is 
brought  before  me,  and  I  pass  upon  the  necessity  of  bringing  the 
case  to  court.  I  find,  too,  that  the  opinion  of  the  district  officer  as 
to  whether  or  not  the  child  shall  be  brought  in  on  these  complaints, 
is  generally  borne  out  on  conference  days  when  I  come  to  investi- 
gate the  matter  personally  with  the  children,  in  conference  with 
their  parents.  Indeed,  I  have  such  confidence  in  many  of  the 
older  officers,  who  visit  the  homes  of  the  parents,  assist  in  every 
way  possible  to  remove  the  cause  of  dependency  or  delinquency, 
and  make  monthly  reports  to  the  head  of  the  probation  depart- 
ment, that  I  often  feel  like  taking  their  opinion  directly  in  the  case. 

Q.  What  would  you  say  as  to  whether  or  not  this  work  of 
investigating  has  been  improved  since  you  were  assigned  to  the 
juvenile  court? 

A.  I  think  it  has,  and  it  is  natural  that  I  should.  I  suppose 
that  every  judge  thinks  that  he  is  doing  things  better  than  his  pre- 
decessor did  them;  but  that  is  a  personal  matter  upon  which  I 
prefer  to  have  somebody  else  pass.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  I 
have  through  my  own  efficiency  or  ability  done  any  better  work 
than  my  predecessors.  I  mean  that  the  growth  of  the  system,  the 
experience  acquired,  solidifies  the  work  and  brings  it  more  com- 
pactly before  the  probation  department  and  the  court.  And 
through  that  experience  of  years,  we  are  able  probably  to  handle 
the  work  better  than  our  predecessors. 

Q.  As  to  the  duty  of  the  probation  officers  when  a  case  is 
heard  to  be  present  in  court  to  represent  the  interest  of  the  child; 
is  that  required  ? 

A.  That  is  always  required.  I  know  of  very  few  cases  in 
which  it  is  not.  Once  in  a  while  a  case  is  continued  with  the  under- 
standing that  if  the  child  who  has  been  a  truant  goes  to  school 
steadily  for  the  next  thirty  days,  or,  when  he  is  a  working  boy,  if 
he  remains  steadily  at  work  and  does  not  run  on  the  streets  after 
his  work,  in  order  to  prevent  his  leaving  his  job  or  leaving  his 
school,  it  is  arranged  that  he  need  not  report  back  on  the  day  desig- 

230 


TESTIMONY   OF  JUDGE    PINCKNEY 

nated  with  the  officers;  but  if  he  communicates  with  the  officer  in 
the  district  and  if  the  officer  in  the  district  sends  me  direct  word 
that  the  orders  have  been  carried  out,  I  continue  the  case  without 
the  child's  coming  in.  It  also  happens  sometimes  that  the  regular 
officer  in  charge  of  the  case  is  not  present  at  the  hearing  because 
he  or  she  may  be  testifying  in  some  other  court,  or  may  be  away 
on  his  or  her  vacation,  or  for  some  other  such  reason.  The  case 
is  then  continued,  unless  the  facts  have  been  placed  at  the  disposal 
of  another  probation  officer  who  appears  and  reports  for  the  one 
who  is  absent. 

Q.  What  would  you  say  with  respect  to  whether  this  re- 
quirement is  satisfactorily  fulfilled  or  not? 

A.  It  has  been,  sir. 

Q.  Now,  as  to  the  duty  of  the  probation  officers  to  furnish  to 
the  court  such  information  and  assistance  as  the  judge  may  re- 
quire? 

A.  That  has  always  been  done.  Since  I  have  been  in  the 
juvenile  court,  I  have  had  this  view  of  the  probation  department 
and  of  the  work — and  I  have  so  expressed  myself — that  if  the  pro- 
bation department  had  not  the  interests  and  welfare  of  the  chil- 
dren at  heart,  the  juvenile  court  could  not  do  the  work  successfully. 
I  have  relied  upon  the  department,  and  it  has  furnished  me  to  my 
satisfaction  all  the  information  upon  which  I  enter  orders  of  com- 
mitment or  orders  of  probation.  In  isolated  cases,  possibly,  it 
has  been  shown  by  rehearings  that  there  has  been  some  mistake 
or  some  failure  to  provide  sufficient  evidence,  or  possibly  it  has 
appeared  that  the  evidence  that  was  presented  at  the  former  hear- 
ing was  prejudiced  evidence  furnished  by  prejudiced  or  biased 
witnesses.  That  has  been  shown  in  some  cases  on  a  rehearing;  but 
these  cases  have  been  few,  especially  if  you  consider  the  great 
number  of  cases  that  come  to  the  court. 

Q.  What  rules  does  the  court  issue  with  respect  to  the  fur- 
nishing of  this  assistance  and  information? 

A.  There  are  no  definite  written  rules  furnished  by  the  court. 
There  are  bulletins  that  the  head  of  the  probation  department  has 
issued.  The  practice  I  found  in  vogue  when  I  went  there  and  the 
practice  now  in  vogue,  is  that  the  probation  officer  is  given  clearly 
to  understand  that  it  is  his  or  her  duty  to  furnish  the  court  every 

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THE    DELINQUENT   CHILD   AND   THE    HOME 

fact  necessary  for  the  court;  not  only  to  determine  whether  or 
not  a  child,  a  delinquent,  has  violated  some  law,  because  that  is 
the  smallest  part  of  this  work,  but  to  furnish  the  facts  from  which 
the  court  may  be  able  to  determine  the  history  of  the  family,  their 
fitness  to  have  charge  of  the  child,  the  cause  that  brings  about  his 
delinquency,  the  character  of  the  environment,  of  the  associates — 
everything  necessary  for  the  court  to  determine  what  to  do  with 
that  child.  As  I  said  before,  the  mere  fact  of  the  violation  of  the 
law  is  the  smallest  part  of  the  problem  of  the  court.  It  is  how  to 
make  a  good  citizen  out  of  the  child  in  the  future  and  put  an  end 
to  the  conditions  that  cause  the  delinquency  or  the  dependency. 

Q.  Under  what  circumstances  do  you  observe  the  work  of  the 
officers  in  this  connection? 

A.  The  officers  come  before  me  in  court  in  each  case.  When 
the  case  is  brought  into  my  court,  unless  it  is  a  contested  case,  with 
lawyers  on  both  sides  or  parties  in  interest  on  both  sides,  I  seek  as 
far  as  possible  to  keep  the  probation  officers  out  of  the  case.  I  do 
not  want  them  to  seem  to  take  sides  or  to  be  looked  upon  as  tak- 
ing sides,  as  they  would  even  if  they  merely  stated  the  truth.  I 
therefore  try  to  get  the  facts  from  the  witnesses  as  nearly  as  I  can 
and  not  from  the  probation  officers. 

Q.  What  have  you  to  say  in  regard  to  the  duties  of  probation 
officers  in  taking  charge  of  the  child  before  trial? 

A.  That  is  the  last  provision  of  the  law  passed  in  1907.  It 
frequently  happens  where  the  child  is  a  vagabond  or  a  runaway. 
Again,  the  father  and  mother  may  both  be  dead.  Often,  too,  the 
probation  officer  will  find  a  family  of  children  with  the  mother  dead 
in  the  house;  the  father  perhaps  had  died  previously,  or  he  may  be 
absent.  Somebody  must  look  after  the  children.  It  is  the  duty 
of  the  officer  to  do  this  and  he  does;  he  looks  after  and  takes  care 
of  the  children.  The  usual  course  of  procedure  in  such  a  case  is  to 
bring  the  children  to  the  detention  home,  where  under  the  care  of 
the  superintendent  acting  under  the  county  board's  instruction 
they  are  kept  until  the  trial;  but  it  frequently  happens  that  these 
probation  officers  take  the  children  to  their  own  homes  before  trial. 

Q.  Are  there  any  rules  issued  by  the  court  in  respect  to  that? 

A.  No,  no,  sir.  As  I  have  already  said,  this  matter  of  the 
probation  officer  and  the  child  is  a  personal  equation.  We  are 

232 


TESTIMONY   OF  JUDGE    PINCKNEY 

dealing  with  human  souls,  not  with  pieces  of  mechanism.  You 
cannot  lay  down  a  written  rule  that  would  be  just  and  fair  to  all; 
you  cannot  lay  down  enough  rules,  if  you  spend  your  lifetime,  to 
cover  every  individual  characteristic  of  every  child. 

Q.  Now,  as  to  the  taking  charge  of  the  child  after  trial  by 
the  probation  department? 

A.  That  of  course  happens  in  many  ways  in  all  the  cases  ex- 
cept those  in  which  a  child  is  committed  to  an  institution,  as  I  have 
explained.  Frequently  a  child  is  returned  to  the  home  of  the 
parents,  subject  to  visitation.  That  means  that  the  district  officer 
in  the  district  where  the  child  lives  is  instructed  to  look  after  the 
child,  to  visit  the  home.  Then  the  child  may  be  placed  in  another 
home  and  there,  also,  the  probation  officers  must  look  after  the 
child  and  report  to  the  chief  probation  officer  monthly  under  the 
rules  laid  down.  There  is  a  bulletin  that  covers  the  way  in  which 
the  officers  shall  make  their  reports  upon  visitations,  the  time  spent, 
when  they  go  to  work,  when  they  quit,  and  all  that.  Those  are 
known  as  the  rules  of  service. 

Q.  What  are  the  duties  of  the  head  probation  officer  as  in- 
dicated by  the  statute? 

A.  The  only  thing  I  remember  to  be  indicated  by  the  statute 
is  that  the  chief  probation  officer  shall  have  charge  of  the  probation 
officers  under  the  direction  of  the  court.  There  are  no  definite 
written  rules  on  the  subject.  It  is  as  I  have  said,  with  this  excep- 
tion, that  since  I  have  been  there  I  have  laid  down  certain  regula- 
tions in  addition  to  the  rules  already  in  practice,  and  have  arranged 
for  certain  procedure  in  the  handling  of  cases  and  for  action  by  the 
district  probation  officers  which  I  thought  best  for  the  welfare  of 
the  children. 

Q.  Can  you  mention  any  of  the  directions  of  the  court  issued 
while  you  have  been  assigned  as  judge  to  the  juvenile  court? 

A.  Yes.  I  think  one  of  the  first  changes  that  I  made  over  at 
the  juvenile  court  was  the  establishment,  through  the  assistance  of 
the  chief  probation  officer,  of  the  conference  days,  of  which  I  have 
spoken.  I  think  that  this  was  practically  the  first  change  of  any 
vital  importance, — establishing  Wednesday  afternoon  for  the  time 
when  fathers  and  mothers  and  children  could  be  brought,  with 
those  complaining  against  the  children,  to  my  chambers,  and  the 

233 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

matter  threshed  out  and  adjusted  so  that  it  would  not  be  necessary 
to  make  a  record  against  the  child.  We  find  that  the  plan  works 
so  well  that  we  have  followed  it  through  the  entire  year. 

Q.  Does  the  head  probation  officer  take  any  part  in  those 
conferences? 

A.  Yes,  nearly  always.  Sometimes,  of  course,  the  district 
officer  in  the  absence  of  the  chief  probation  officer  comes  in  and 
lays  the  facts  before  me  in  my  chambers,  with  the  complaining 
witness  and  with  the  parents  and  children;  but,  nearly  always,  he  is 
there  or  is  instrumental  in  bringing  them  in. 

Q.  What  would  you  say,  Judge,  with  respect  to  the  satisfac- 
tory or  unsatisfactory  character  of  the  head  probation  officer's 
work  in  that  respect. 

A.  \  considered  it  satisfactory,  and  it  was  satisfactory.  I 
should  also  like  to  say  that  I  found  after  being  over  there  five  or 
six  months,  perhaps  less,  that  there  was  one  side  of  child  life  with 
regard  to  which  I  was  not  getting  satisfactory  evidence.  That  was 
the  psychological  side.  Shortly  after  I  went  there,  I  think  in  the 
winter  time  of  my  first  term  in  the  court,  through  the  generosity  of 
two  citizens  of  this  county  a  psychopathic  institute  was  established, 
at  the  head  of  which,  under  the  pay  of  private  individuals,  was  Dr. 
William  J.  Healy,  a  well-known  physician  and  neurologist,  a  man 
especially  fitted  to  look  into  the  psychology  of  the  child.  He 
stayed  with  me,  or  in  my  court  room,  where  I  could  use  him  when- 
ever a  case  required,  for  about  the  first  six  months.  Since  that 
time  his  work  has  grown  so  that  he  has  not  been  present  in  court 
except  when  sent  for  and  when  he  has  been  called  on  to  report  on 
cases,  or  when  I  have  asked  him  to  look  into  cases  with  consent  of 
the  parents.  Only  those  who  have  had  experience  with  this  work 
and  have  studied  it  will  understand  the  necessity  for  some  assistance 
of  that  kind.  The  judge  is  often  unable  in  hearing  a  case,  with  oral 
testimony,  having  only  a  cursory  view  and  examination  of  the 
child,  to  get  at  the  seat  of  the  difficulty  and  the  cause  of  the  child's 
trouble.  That  is  especially  true  in  the  case  of  epilepsy  or  of  any 
kind  of  mental  disturbance  which  causes  the  truancy  or  delinquency 
of  the  child.  You  never  can  get  at  the  true  cause  unless  you  have 
someone  like  Dr.  Healy,  able  by  examination  to  determine  what  is 
the  true  cause,  and  to  report.  He  has  often  saved  me  from  doing 

234 


TESTIMONY  OF  JUDGE    PINCKNEY 

what  would  have  been  the  wrong  thing  for  a  child  by  his  examina- 
tion of  the  child,  and  by  his  report  on  the  child's  condition;  and 
he  is  helping  the  court  today,  gratuitously,  so  far  as  the  county  is 
concerned,  in  that  work.  Whoever  goes  to  the  court  will  find  that 
he  needs  just  such  a  man  as  Dr.  Healy  if  he  intends  to  do  the  proper 
thing  for  the  welfare  of  the  children  in  the  court. 

Before  I  leave  this  subject,  I  should  add  one  point  more. 
Through  the  probation  department,  I  first  requested  Mr.  Witter  to 
see  that  the  officers  communicated  with  the  parents,  and  asked 
them  if  they  would  be  willing  to  have  the  children  examined  by  Dr. 
Healy,  before  trial,  if  possible;  and  when  the  children  have  come 
before  me  and  I  have  not  been  able  to  determine  what  the  real 
trouble  is,  then  I  have  asked  the  parents  and  secured  their  consent, 
on  a  continuance,  to  have  the  child  examined  in  that  way,  so  that 
all  this  work  done  by  Dr.  Healy  has  been  done  in  nearly  every 
instance  with  the  consent  of  the  parents.  It  has  now  become  so 
popular  among  the  fathers  and  mothers  that  they  come  in  and  ask 
me  to  do  this  even  before  the  children  are  brought  into  court. 

Q.  Do  you  make  any  directions  as  to  the  bringing  of  children 
into  the  detention  home? 

A.  Yes.  I  found  the  detention  home  greatly  overcrowded 
when  I  went  over  there  in  September,  1908,  and  it  is  a  constant 
source  of  trouble  now.  Until  changed  by  the  order  of  the  court,  it 
was  the  habit,  especially  of  the  city  policemen,  instead  of  taking 
children  to  their  own  homes,  to  dump  them  into  the  detention  home 
and  leave  them, — any  little  fellow  between  eight  and  twelve  years, 
and  sometimes  younger,  that  they  happened  to  pick  up  on  the 
street.  I  issued  instructions  through  Mr.  Witter,  and  told  the 
department  to  see  to  it  that  these  city  policemen  should  in  every 
possible  case  take  these  children  to  their  own  homes  instead  of 
bringing  them  to  the  detention  home.  I  also  urged  upon  the 
probation  department  that  the  first  duty  of  the  officers  should  be 
to  see  that  these  children  went  home  instead  of  being  held  in  the 
detention  home,  so  that  children  should  be  held  there  only  in  extreme 
cases.  Even  with  all  that  care,  the  detention  home  is  overcrowded 
all  the  time,  and  the  children  are  not  taken  care  of  as  they  should  be 
because  of  the  close  quarters  in  the  home. 

235 


THE  DELINQUENT   CHILD    AND   THE    HOME 

Q.  Have  you  made  any  direction  in  regard  to  the  service  of 
summons? 

A.  Yes,  I  took  that  up  with  the  officers  and  with  the  chief 
probation  officer  early  in  my  term  of  service,  directing  that  the 
usual  process  which  the  law  contemplates,  the  service  of  a  sum- 
mons, should  be  first  tried;  and  that,  except  in  extreme  cases  where 
it  would  be  obviously  ineffective,  a  summons  should  be  used  first. 
I  also  found  that  repeaters,  some  of  whom  had  been  sent  to  institu- 
tions, were  released  from  the  institutions  to  go  home  without  hav- 
ing the  record  in  court  clear;  that  is,  without  bringing  the  child 
into  court  for  the  purpose  of  having  the  record  of  commitment 
vacated  or  the  child  released.  And  I  directed,  and  it  has  been  the 
practice  ever  since,  so  far  as  I  know,  that  the  probation  department 
should  make  inquiries  at  the  institution  on  the  day  on  which  the 
child  is  brought  in  again  and  require  its  representative  in  court  to 
explain  to  the  court  why  that  child  is  away  from  the  institution  and 
why  he  has  not  been  reported  for  release.  You  will  remember  that 
the  institution  has  complete  authority  in  disposing  of  children 
committed  to  it.  Under  both  the  industrial  school  act  and  the 
manual  training  school  act  for  girls  and  boys,  respectively,  and 
under  section  eight  of  the  juvenile  court  act,  the  very  last  part, 
under  "guardianship,  etc.,"  it  is  held  that  the  institution  can  hold 
the  child  in  the  institution,  subject  to  its  by-laws  and  rules,  and 
under  the  same  law  it  has  authority  to  parole  or  release.  I 
have,  however,  authority  to  make  this  requirement  because  of  a 
provision  of  the  law  which  says  that  all  parties  in  interest  must  be 
made  parties  defendant.  When  we  file  a  petition,  and  a  custodian, 
as  shown  by  my  record,  is  such  a  party  in  interest,  that  custodian 
must  be  made  a  party  defendant  in  order  to  make  the  court  record 
clear.  I  do  not  know  whether  if  they  refused  I  could  make  them 
come.  But  they  could  be  defaulted,  and  then  I  should  go  ahead 
with  my  order  and  the  court  record  would  be  clear. 

Q.  Could  you  hold  them  in  contempt  if  they  did  not  comply 
with  the  summons  as  defendants  in  cases  of  that  character? 

A.  No,  because,  like  all  other  defendants,  they  can  default, 
and  the  law  provides  for  the  entry  of  the  default.  Then  I  have 
another  reason.  I  do  this  not  only  to  meet  the  legal  requirements 
of  the  record  but  also  in  order  to  get  all  the  information  I  can  so 

236 


TESTIMONY   OF  JUDGE    PINCKNEY 

that  I  can  know  what  to  do  with  the  child.  He  is  a  repeater,  and 
I  try  to  get  that  information  through  the  agency  of  the  institution. 
I  have  the  statutory  authority  to  do  this  under  the  Practice  and 
Procedure  sections,  where  it  says  that  the  parents,  guardians,  and 
custodians  must  be  made  party  defendants.  Otherwise  they  might 
cause  us  trouble,  because  the  institution  has  placed  the  child  on 
parole,  and  after  I  enter  some  order  they  might  say,  "Why,  here, 
we  only  paroled  that  child  for  six  months,"  and  they  might  come 
and  take  the  child  away  from  the  place  where  I  had  sent  him.  I 
prevent  such  possibility  by  default  after  summons,  so  that  they 
are  through  with  that  child  and  I  have  the  right  to  control. 

Q.  Then  in  your  opinion,  Judge,  there  seems  to  be  this  break 
in  the  juvenile  court's  authority.  You  have  all  authority  over 
the  child  when  it  is  brought  into  your  court  until  you  make  your 
final  disposition  or  order  directing  the  child  into  some  institution. 
When  it  goes  there,  your  authority  ceases,  except  in  special  in- 
stances as  you  have  said,  under  section  ge.  But  when  the  child 
has  gone  out  from  that  institution  under  some  rule  or  law,  and  he 
is  again  found  in  trouble  and  brought  into  court,  you  can  then 
cite  that  institution  into  court  for  the  purpose  of  finding  out  why 
the  child  was  let  go? 

A.  First  for  the  purpose  of  making  the  record  clear,  so  that 
whatever  order  I  subsequently  enter  will  be  right. 

Q.  Yes,  for  the  purpose  of  making  your  record  you  think 
that  you  have  a  right  to  cite  the  institution  in.  In  other  words, 
from  the  statute  your  general  authority  apparently  breaks  when 
the  child  enters  the  institution  and  commences  again  for  the 
purpose  of  keeping  a  record  of  the  child  when  he  is  out  of  the 
institution? 

A.  Yes.  And  1  have  always  thought  and  so  expressed  my- 
self that  the  court  ought  to  have  the  right  to  demand  information 
or  reports  from  these  institutions  as  to  what  disposition  they  make 
of  the  child.  There  are,  however,  two  sides  to  the  proposition. 
My  idea  is  this;  that  when  a  father,  mother,  and  child  are  brought 
into  the  juvenile  court,  when  it  is  found  necessary  for  the  welfare 
of  the  child  and  for  the  interests  of  the  state  to  send  the  child  to  an 
institution,  the  father  and  mother  if  they  are  fit, — not  prostitute 
mothers,  not  drunken  fathers,  not  parents  that  would  disgrace  the 

237 


THE    DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND   THE   HOME 

children  in  the  homes  where  they  are  placed,  but  fit  fathers  and 
mothers, — at  any  subsequent  date  ought  to  be  able  to  go  to  the 
juvenile  court  and  say,  "Where  is  my  child?"  and  learn  where  their 
child  is.  The  record  ought  to  show  that  the  child  is  either  in  an  in- 
stitution where  they  could  go  and  find  him  and  see  him,  or  else  in  the 
home  where  the  child  has  been  placed  on  parole  by  the  institution. 
It  should  be  remembered,  however,  that  in  1910  there  were  more 
than  2500  delinquent  children.  Of  those  children,  1175  were  so 
delinquent  that  they  should  have  been  placed  somewhere  away  from 
their  own  homes.  The  delinquency  of  75  per  cent  of  these  was 
caused  by  the  incompetency  and  neglect  of  parents,  parents  who 
are  absolutely  unfit  to  look  after  their  children.  If  you  take  a 
child  from  such  parents,  and  do  so  justly,  and  if  you  place  it  in  an 
institution,  and  the  institution  finds  a  good  home  for  the  child, 
would  you  think  it  right  if  yours  was  one  of  the  families  who  had  a 
nice  boy  or  girl  given  to  you  by  an  institution,  to  have  a  drunken 
father  stumbling  over  your  doorstep,  or  a  prostitute  mother  enter- 
ing at  your  door  inquiring  for  that  child?  I  think  not.  Homes 
could  never  be  found  for  children  under  such  conditions.  So  there 
are  two  sides  to  this  proposition,  and  it  has  been  argued  pro  and 
con.  It  is  not  an  easy  thing,  and  you  cannot  draw  a  line  here  and 
say  for  this  child  thus  and  so  must  be  done,  for  that  child  thus  and 
so.  It  is  a  personal  equation  again,  this  time  with  the  parent  or 
parents.  The  authority  ought  to  be  given  to  the  juvenile  court  to 
exercise  at  the  court's  discretion,  and  when  a  father  knocks  at  the 
door  of  the  juvenile  court  and  says,  "Where  is  my  child?"  the  court 
can  ask:  "  Mr.  Smith,  how  have  you  lived?"  and  "  Mrs.  Smith,  are 
you  in  the  red  light  district?"  "Mr.  Smith,  are  you  a  drunkard? 
If  you  are,  the  state  of  Illinois  demands  for  the  welfare  of  the  child, 
which  is  its  first  and  only  interest  and  should  control  its  actions, 
that  you  see  that  child  no  more."  I  stand  for  that.  But  on  the 
other  hand,  I  stand  just  as  firmly  for  the  proposition  that  after  a 
child  has  been  once  taken  from  a  fit  father  and  mother  through 
misfortune  of  poverty  or  other  mischance,  since  that  father  and 
mother  have  the  first  natural  right  to  the  child,  the  child  should 
be  returned  to  the  father  and  mother  when  they  are  fit  and 
able  to  take  proper  care  of  the  child.  Such  parents  always  get 
the  child  when  they  come  to  me,  and  I  have  made  the  institu- 

238 


TESTIMONY   OF  JUDGE    PINCKNEY 

tions,  so  far  as  the  law  gave  me  the  right  and  authority,  yield  to  the 

parents'  demand. 

*  *  *  ***** 

Q.  What  have  you  done,  Judge,  in  regard  to  making  delin- 
quents who  have  stolen  make  restitution? 

A.  Well,  I  suppose  that  every  judge  sometimes  does  things 
he  has  not  the  legal  right  to  do,  but  knows  to  be  just  and  right. 
I  have  laid  down  and  followed  the  rule  and  insisted  that  Mr. 
Witter  and  his  officers  follow  the  same  rule,  that  whenever 
a  boy  is  guilty  of  larceny,  or  what  would  commonly  be  called 
"guilty  of  larceny,"  or  is  a  delinquent  because  of  having  stolen 
money  or  destroyed  goods  of  a  certain  value,  that  boy  must 
be  required  to  work  and  earn  the  money  and  pay  back,  making 
restitution.  And  I  have  found  no  better  way  of  making  that  boy 
take  notice,  change  his  habits,  stop  stealing,  and  work.  In  many 
cases  he  steals  $20  to  $30,  and  this  means  making  him  work  two  or 
three  months  and  pay  a  dollar  a  week  out  of  his  wages,  until  the 
money  he  has  stolen  and  spent  at  five  cent  theaters  or  nickel  shows, 
etc.,  is  all  paid  back.  And  while,  as  I  say,  I  have  no  legal  right 
to  do  that,  I  have  done  it,  because  I  considered  it  the  right  and 
proper  thing  to  do.  The  results  are  admirable. 

******** 

Q.  What  is  the  practical  method,  Judge,  by  which  you  induce 
the  delinquent  boys  who  have  stolen  to  make  restitution? 

A.  The  practical  method  is  for  the  boy  to  find  a  job.  He  is 
sent  out  to  work,  a  job  is  procured  for  him,  and  he  is  required  to 
pay  so  much  a  week  to  the  man  or  to  the  woman  from  whom  he  has 
stolen  this  money  until  the  restitution  is  made.  And  if  he  does 
that,  and  most  of  them  do,  he  is  nearly  ready  to  quit  being  bad, 
quit  being  a  thief.  He  has  had  a  lesson  that  is  an  object  lesson 
which  he  does  not  forget.  He  has  had  to  take  it  out  of  his  hard- 
earned  money,  his  wages,  and  pay  back  what  he  has  stolen  and 
spent  recklessly.  If  he  does  not  do  it,  I  bring  him  in,  and  as  the  case 
has  been  continued  from  time  to  time,  I  still  have  jurisdiction. 
Sometimes  I  send  him  to  an  institution.  I  cannot  legally  enforce 
it  against  him,  of  course,  but  the  boy  is  generally  very  glad  to  do  it. 

Q.  What  have  you  done  with  regard  to  eliminating  the 
prosecuting  spirit  among  probation  officers,  if  that  ever  existed? 

239 


THE    DELINQUENT   CHILD   AND  THE    HOME 

A.  There  is  not  much  of  that  now.  A  new  officer  coming 
upon  the  force  may  get  the  idea  that  he  must  prosecute;  that  it  is 
a  part  of  his  duty.  That  is  soon  taken  out  of  the  officer  by  in- 
struction. Especially  if  I  find  that  spirit  apparent  at  a  trial,  if 
the  officer  should  testify  as  though  he  were  in  a  way  prosecuting 
the  child,  I  let  him  see  that  he  is  not  there  for  that  purpose;  that 
he  is  there  to  represent  the  interests  of  the  child  and  the  welfare  of 
the  child  and  to  lay  the  facts,  simply  the  facts,  before  the  court. 

Q.  What  has  the  court  done,  Judge,  with  respect  to  promot- 
ing co-operation  between  the  city  probation  officers,  sometimes 
called  police  probation  officers,  and  the  county  probation  officers? 

A.  To  make  that  clear,  I  ought  to  say  that  we  have,  I  think, 
something  like  thirty  city  probation  officers  paid  by  the  city  of 
Chicago.  They  are  policemen,  but  they  travel  the  district  to 
which  they  are  assigned  in  citizen's  clothes  without  club  or  star. 
They  are  paid  by  the  city. 

The  way  in  which  it  came  about  that  the  city  of  Chicago, 
although  not  legally  required  to  do  so,  furnished  a  quota  of 
officers  from  the  city  police  force  to  serve  in  the  juvenile  court  as 
probation  officers  under  commission  issued  by  the  judge  of  the 
juvenile  court,  was  as  follows:  When  Judge  Tuthill  first  came  to 
the  juvenile  court  as  judge,  there  was  no  provision  made  for  paid 
probation  officers,  and  the  work  was  done  entirely  by  volunteers. 
He  soon  found  it  impossible  to  do  the  work  without  the  assistance 
of  men  and  women  whose  business  it  was  to  go  out  into  the  high- 
ways and  byways  to  make  these  investigations,  and  also  to  look 
after  the  children  after  they  were  placed  in  the  homes.  There  was 
no  way  under  the  law  by  which  these  officers,  if  they  gave  their 
services,  could  be  paid.  On  that  account,  he  took  it  up  with  the 
mayor,  Carter  H.  Harrison,  and  explained  to  him  why  as  a  judge 
of  the  court  he  thought  that  the  city  should  supply  to  the  juvenile 
court,  officers  from  the  police  department  who  should  serve  as  pro- 
bation officers.  He  called  the  mayor's  attention  to  the  fact  that 
while  acting  as  probation  officers,  they  would  still  be  policemen 
looking  after  the  welfare  of  the  citizens  of  Chicago  and  their  chil- 
dren, and  that  in  effect  they  would  be  doing  police  duty;  and  that 
therefore  it  was  no  more  than  right,  since  the  great  mass  of  children 
who  are  becoming  dependent  and  delinquent  in  the  city  of  Chicago 

240 


TESTIMONY   OF   JUDGE    PINCKNEY 

were  necessarily  a  charge  upon  the  municipality  as  well  as  upon  the 
county,  that  the  city  should  do  its  part,  in  furnishing  employes  or 
officers  to  take  care  of  those  children,  both  before  and  after  the 
hearing. 

It  took  some  time  to  convince  the  department  of  the  city  that 
this  should  be  done,  but  the  Honorable  Mayor,  when  he  under- 
stood the  true  meaning  of  the  law  and  the  needs  of  the  case,  ac- 
ceded to  the  request  of  Judge  Tuthill.  The  judge  then  at  the  re- 
quest of  the  mayor  called  in  the  captains  of  the  various  police  pre- 
cincts in  Chicago  and  explained  the  law  to  them,  the  need  of  this 
kind  of  assistance,  the  kind  of  men  wanted  on  the  force;  and  after 
the  matter  was  thoroughly  understood,  discussed,  and  digested, 
the  practice  was  adopted  of  having  about  thirty  officers  from  the 
city  police  department  detailed  to  the  juvenile  court  to  do  the  work 
in  connection  with  the  county  probation  officers.  That  is  how  the 
city  policemen,  as  they  are  called,  came  to  take  off  their  uniforms 
and  leave  their  clubs  and  revolvers  at  home,  put  their  stars  under 
their  vests,  and  as  plain  clothes  citizens  walk  the  districts  in  com- 
pany with  the  county  probation  officers  and  assist  the  juvenile 
court  in  doing  its  work.  In  the  same  way,  a  lawyer  from  the  city 
department  has  been  detailed.  The  judge  was  not  able  at  first 
to  get  assistance  from  the  county  attorney's  office.  Mr.  Deneen, 
who  was  formerly  state's  attorney,  sent  over  to  the  court  from  the 
state's  attorney's  office  as  a  representative  of  the  children  and  of 
the  state,  an  attorney,  who  acted  for  quite  a  while.  He  could  not 
be  there  all  the  time,  however,  and  again  Judge  Tuthill  took  the 
matter  up  with  Mr.  Harrison,  who  arranged  with  the  city  corpora- 
tion counsel's  office  to  send  over  an  attorney  from  that  office  to 
look  after  the  work.  That  is  the  system  that  I  found  in  effect 
when  I  went  over  there.  Then  we  have  a  group  of  thirty-five 
county  probation  officers,  beside  the  chief  and  the  assistant,  paid 
by  the  county.  Now,  through  the  assistance  of  the  chief  proba- 
tion officer,  we  get  them  together  so  that  there  is  neither  jealousy 
nor  any  spirit  of  antagonism  among  them.  They  work  harmoni- 
ously, and  they  have  an  organization  among  themselves. 

******** 

Q.  Have  you  ever  made  any  directions,  Judge,  with  respect 
to  police  probation  officers  or  city  probation  officers  reporting  to  a 

241 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

probation  officer  who  already  has  charge  of  a  child  that  the  city 
probation  officer  has  taken  up  again? 

A.  Yes.  The  court  arranged  in  cases  in  which  a  child  came 
under  his  observation  outside  of  the  regular  district — very  fre- 
quently children  in  an  outlying  district  come  down  town  and  are 
found  peddling  gum,  selling  newspapers,  etc. — that  the  city  pro- 
bation officer  should  take  the  child  and  report  to  the  county  pro- 
bation officer  in  the  district  in  which  the  child  lives. 

******** 

Q.  The  court  enters  orders  from  time  to  time  requiring  par- 
ents to  pay  for  the  support  of  the  child? 

A.  Yes. 

Q.  How  are  these  orders  enforced? 

A.  They  are  enforced  under  my  chancery  powers.  I  think 
it  is  section  22  of  the  juvenile  court  law  which  provides  that  where 
the  father  is  able  to  contribute  to  the  support  of  the  child,  an  order 
can  be  entered  by  the  court  requiring  him  to  pay  for  the  support  of 
the  child,  and  security  may  be  demanded  by  the  court;  and  if  he 
does  not  comply  with  the  order,  he  will  be  punished  for  contempt. 
That  is  somewhat  of  a  joke  so  far  as  security  is  concerned,  because 
not  one  in  a  hundred  of  the  poor  people  who  come  to  the  court 
could  furnish  security  if  their  lives  depended  on  it.  If  they  were 
to  be  hung  or  furnish  security,  you  would  have  to  hang  them,  be- 
cause there  is  no  security  which  they  can  furnish.  So  the  only  re- 
course that  a  court  has  is  to  enforce  the  payment  of  this  money 
under  contempt  proceedings,  which  every  lawyer  knows  is  a  slow 
method.  This  means,  first,  that  an  order  is  entered  for  the  father 
to  pay  perhaps  four  or  five  dollars  a  week  for  the  child,  or  ten 
dollars  a  month  for  the  child,  to  the  clerk  of  the  court  for  the  use  of 
the  mother  or  of  the  institution  to  which  the  child  is  committed. 
You  first  have  to  wait  thirty  days  to  find  out  whether  he  is  going 
to  make  the  payment;  then  when  he  does  not  make  the  payment, 
it  is  necessary  to  enter  a  rule  to  show  cause  why  he  should  not  be 
attached  for  contempt.  Notice  must  then  be  served.  You  can- 
not arrest  him  and  bring  him  in  and  put  him  in  jail;  you  must  first 
serve  notice  on  him  that  you  are  going  to  ask  him  to  show  cause 
why  he  should  not  be  attached  for  contempt  of  court.  In  nine 
cases  out  of  ten,  when  such  notice  is  served,  the  man  disappears  from 

242 


TESTIMONY   OF  JUDGE    PINCKNEY 

the  horizon.  When  you  come  to  enter  the  next  order,  which  is  the 
rule  to  show  cause  within  ten  days,  or  any  fixed  time,  he  is  not  there, 
and  you  cannot  get  service  on  him ;  or  if  he  is  there,  and  you  get  ser- 
vice on  him,  he  disappears  between  that  time  and  the  time  you  issue 
the  writ  of  attachment.  And  when  you  issue  the  writ  of  attachment, 
the  officer  hunts  and  hunts  and  does  not  find  his  man.  That  is  the 
situation  at  the  present  time  under  this  law.  1 1  is  unsatisfactory,  hard 
to  handle,  and  while  I  have  done  everything  I  could  since  I  went  over 
there,  starting  out  within  three  or  four  months  to  enforce  these  pay- 
ments so  as  to  assist  the  county  in  defraying  these  expenses,  I  have 
not  been  able  to  do  much,  and  find  it  an  unsatisfactory  proceeding. 
******** 

Q.  Do  you  know  the  way  in  which  the  force  of  probation  officers 
is  divided  so  that  different  groups  specialize  in  different  matters? 

A.  The  city  of  Chicago  is  divided  into  about  twenty-six 
districts,  and  an  officer  is  assigned  to  each  one  of  those  districts. 
This  is  necessary  in  order  to  avoid  overlapping  and  confusion. 
That  leaves  officers  who  can  do  other  work,  and  who  are  placed  on 
special  work.  Mrs.  Shannon,  for  instance,  who  through  her  con- 
nections and  friends  and  acquaintanceships  is  especially  adapted  to 
placing  children,  chiefly  girls,  in  Catholic  homes,  is  used  for  that 
purpose;  another  woman,  a  probation  officer,  is  at  the  head  of  the 
claims  department;  there  is  now  or  will  be  one  at  the  head  of  the 
Funds  to  Parents  act  department,  and  there  will  have  to  be  two  or 
three  officers  assigned  to  special  aspects  of  that  work,  because  the 
work  is  so  great  that  no  person,  however  great  his  intellect  or  how 
big  his  physique,  will  be  able  to  handle  it  all  without  able  assistants 
directly  under  him. 

Q.  How  many  cases  pass  through  the  hands  of  the  court 
every  year? 

A.  I  think  this  court  was  organized  July  31,  1899,  and  the 
docket  number  shows  that  there  are  close  to  39,000  new  cases 
which  have  gone  through  the  court.  In  1910,  which  was  an  un- 
usually heavy  year,  we  had  over  4100  children  in  court. 

******** 

Q.  (Commissioner  Greer.)   I  wish  to  ask  you,  Judge,  if  you  want 

to  state  anything  about  the  reforms  needed  in  the  juvenile  court? 

A.  There  are  a  great  many  reforms  that  ought  to  be  inaug- 

243 


THE    DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND   THE    HOME 

urated  there.  I  have  tried  to  mention  some  of  them.  You,  this 
honorable  board  and  society  in  Chicago,  could  help  the  juvenile 
court  very  much.  First,  provision  should  be  made  for  the  care 
of  the  epileptics  who  come  into  my  court,  sometimes  as  many 
as  three  or  five  in  a  week.  It  is  an  outrage  on  a  civilized  Christian 
community  to  think  of  the  hundreds  of  epileptics  who  have  come 
into  the  court  during  the  time  that  I  have  been  there  and  fallen  on 
the  floor  in  the  throes  of  their  trouble,  who  are  not  taken  care  of. 
There  is  not  an  institution  in  the  county  of  Cook,  city  of  Chicago, 
state  of  Illinois,  where  they  can  be  taken  care  of.  That  is  the  most 
serious  trouble  we  have.  These  epileptics  are  turned  loose  on  the 
street.  Epileptic  girls,  at  an  age  when  they  become  delinquent, 
are  susceptible  to  influences  that  other  girls  with  mental  capacity 
and  strength  of  character  can  resist;  but  they  fall,  and  you  force 
the  court  to  turn  them  loose  to  go  back  to  the  red  light  district. 
Epileptic  girls  who  are  delinquent  are  a  positive  menace  to  society. 
There  is  no  place  in  God's  world  to  send  them. 

Then,  secondly,  you  have  a  detention  home  that  may  have 
been  big  enough  at  the  time  it  was  built.  Now  it  is  wholly  in- 
adequate. Give  those  poor  children  in  the  home  a  playground 
around  the  institution  where  they  can  go  out  and  stretch  their 
limbs  and  get  a  little  breath  uncontaminated  by  the  air  that  they 
are  inhaling  in  that  institution.  Do  not  any  longer  crowd  eighty 
and  one  hundred  children  into  corridors  where  they  cannot 
move  about  without  knocking  elbows  and  heads  together.  You 
have,  too,  a  court  room  in  which  it  is  wrong  to  ask  anybody  to 
sit  who  has  any  regard  for  health  and  life.  I  do  not  say  this  as  a 
bid  for  sympathy.  I  had  the  former  county  board  examine  it 
through  two  of  their  experts  in  sanitation  and  ventilation,  and  they 
conceded  that  the  building  was  put  up  without  any  method  of 
getting  out  of  the  court  room  the  vile  odors  and  smells  that  ac- 
cumulate within  the  three  and  a  half  hours,  or  even  an  hour,  during 
which  court  is  in  session.  Give  us  a  place  in  which  we  can  sit  and 
hold  court  and  be  healthy  and  well.  Turn  your  attention  to  some 
of  these  things,  and  give  us  some  assistance  along  these  lines. 

Then,  too,  we  need  more  help  in  the  probation  department. 
I  shall  be  glad  to  take  that  up  with  you  along  lines  that  are  con- 
structive— not  in  a  hasty,  ill-advised  way,  but  in  a  careful,  construc- 

244 


TESTIMONY   OF   JUDGE    PINCKNEY 

tive  way.  We  must  have  it.  I  am  in  favor  too  of  amending  this 
law,  if  it  can  be  done  constitutionally,  so  that  when  children  have 
been  sent  to  an  institution,  the  institution  must  report  back  to  the 
juvenile  court  what  becomes  of  those  children,  leaving  it  to  the 
discretion  of  the  juvenile  court  when  in  later  years  people  come 
back  to  ask  for  their  children,  whether  or  not  the  place  to  which 
the  child  has  been  sent,  or  the  family  to  whom  it  has  been  sent 
and  with  whom  it  is  living,  should  be  disclosed.  I  have  always 
been  in  favor  of  that  and  I  am  in  favor  of  it  today,  but  there  are 
limits.  Consider  the  welfare  of  the  child  and  the  interests  of  the 
state  of  Illinois.  The  court  should  certainly  have  the  power  to 
say,  when  the  mother  is  a  prostitute  or  the  father  a  drunkard  or  in 
the  house  of  correction,  that  the  little  girl  must  not  be  disturbed 
in  her  future  life  by  having  such  parents  knocking  at  the  door  of  the 
good  home  where  she  has  lived  the  last  eight  or  ten  years.  There 
are  among  my  acquaintances  young  ladies  who  are  adopted  daugh- 
ters whose  mothers  are  immoral  and  whose  fathers  are  no  good. 
Do  you  mean  to  say  that  it  is  for  the  welfare  of  the  child  under 
these  circumstances  to  allow  those  parents  to  go  and  claim  kinship? 
That  is  not  the  purpose  of  the  law  and  that  would  never  be  right  in 
any  Christian  community  having  at  heart  the  interests  of  the  child 
and  the  welfare  of  the  state.  It  should,  however,  be  within  the 
discretion  of  the  juvenile  court.  And  the  court,  having  once  sent 
a  child  to  an  institution,  should  have  a  record  there  to  know  what 
has  become  of  the  child.  Any  institution  that  wants  to  safeguard 
the  rights  and  welfare  of  the  child  conscientiously  ought  to  con- 
sent to  such  an  arrangement. 

We  must  also  have  relief  along  other  lines.  Perhaps  you  will 
find  some  judge  after  next  July  who  can  do  all  this  work  and  handle 
it  easily  and  without  trouble  and  without  breaking  down  his  health. 
I  hope  that  you  can.  But  I  say  that  it  is  unfair  under  the  present 
system  to  ask  one  judge  to  do  it  all  unassisted  and  that  some 
plan  or  practice  whereby  some  of  the  work  can  be  taken  off  his 
shoulders  should  be  devised.  At  one  time  I  was  in  favor  of  having 
the  court  held  in  different  districts.  I  am  afraid  that  plan  will  not 
work  out  well.  I  believe  in  keeping  in  touch  with  the  children — 
and  in  personal  relationships  between  the  court  and  parents  and 
children.  You  must  have  one  man  at  the  head  and  you  must 
17  245 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND   THE    HOME 

figure  out  some  system,  some  method  whereby  with  one  man  at  the 
head  you  can  lighten  this  work.  A  plan  might  be  worked  out 
whereby  the  district  officer  here  and  there,  or  assistants  to  the 
judge,  could  eliminate  a  great  mass  of  this  work  and  only  send  up 
the  most  urgent  and  the  most  serious  cases  to  the  judge.  Some- 
thing must  be  done,  and  that  very  soon. 

There  are  a  great  many  other  reforms  which  I  think  ought 
to  be  brought  about.  I  think  that  we  ought  to  have  a  home  for 
semi-delinquent  boys  and  girls.  I  think  that  it  is  a  failure  of  the 
administration  of  the  juvenile  law  to  take  a  girl  who  has  gone 
wrong  once  by  some  mischance  and  place  her  in  the  company  of 
women  and  older  vicious  girls  from  the  red  light  district.  I  insist 
that  there  ought  to  be  a  midway  station  between  the  girl  at  home 
on  parole  and  the  girl  in  the  Chicago  Refuge,  in  the  House  of  the 
Good  Shepherd,  or  at  Geneva,  where  the  girl  can  be  given  among 
her  own  kind — that  is,  among  other  innocent,  unfortunate  girls — 
an  opportunity  to  turn  away  from  the  life  that  she  unfortunately 
fell  into,  and  to  become  a  good  citizen.  That  is  a  serious  need;  it 
must  be  met.  It  is  the  same  with  the  boys,  the  semi-delinquent 
boys  who  are  first  offenders  and  not  recidivists — such  boys  ought 
not  to  be  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School.  With  all  respect  to  that 
great  institution,  managed  well  and  conducted  as  properly  as  it 
can  be  conducted  under  present  conditions,  it  is  not  the  place  for 
the  semi-delinquent  boy.  As  yet,  there  is  no  other  place  for  him. 

Now,  for  the  repeatedly  delinquent  girl;  we  must  also  have 
some  place  to  send  her.  I  turned  back  to  their  old  environment 
and  to  their  old  associates,  from  150  to  200  girls  in  1910,  not  only 
to  go  to  ruin  themselves,  but  to  drag  down  good  girls  and  good 
boys  by  contact  and  association.  There  was  no  place  to  send 
them.  The  greafTraining  School  for  Girls  at  Geneva,  the  only 
state  institution  that  we  have  for  Protestant  delinquent  girls,  could 
take  only  35  girls  in  1910,  and  we  had  475  delinquent  girls  that 
year  in  the  juvenile  court  who  needed  institutional  care.  These  are 
some  of  the  things  that  need  attention.  Why,  I  have  written  about 
these  needs  and  I  have  talked  about  them  and  1  have  made  speeches 
about  them,  but  no  one  pays  any  attention.  Gentlemen,  if  you  will 
turn  your  thought  along  these  lines  and  help  supply  their  needs,  you 
will  accomplish  something  for  the  cause  of  the  children  of  Chicago. 

246 


APPENDIX   III 

ABSTRACT  OF  JUVENILE  COURT  LAWS 
BY  GRACE  ABBOTT 

Special  and  partial  provisions  for  the  better  and  more  humane  care  of  delin- 
quent and  dependent  children  were  made  from  time  to  time  by  our  state  legislatures 
many  years  ago,  but  with  the  enactment  of  the  Illinois  Juvenile  Court  Laws  in  1899  a 
new  epoch  was  begun.  This  law,  since  modified  and  improved,  has  been  the  model  for 
similar  legislation  in  twenty-two  other  states — Alabama,1  California,  Colorado,  Georgia, 
Idaho,  Indiana,  Iowa,  Kansas,  Kentucky,  Louisiana,  Massachusetts,  Michigan, 
Minnesota,  Nebraska,  Ohio,  Oregon,  Pennsylvania,  Tennessee,  Texas,  Utah,  Wash- 
ington, Wisconsin — and  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  Under  the  common  law  a  child 
of  seven2  was  regarded  as  responsible  for  his  acts  and  was  treated  as  a  criminal 
in  the  charge,  the  trial,  and  the  disposition  made  of  him  after  trial.  Under  the 
new  theory  the  child  offender  is  regarded  not  as  a  criminal  but  as  a  delinquent, 
"as  misdirected  and  misguided  and  needing  aid,  encouragement,  help  and  assistance";3 
he  is  kept  entirely  separate  from  the  adult  offender,  and  the  probation  system  is  used 
whenever  practicable.  These  are  the  most  important  features  of  the  new  legislation 
which  has  been  adopted  in  the  states  enumerated.  A  number  of  other  states,  of  which 
New  York,  Maryland,  and  New  Jersey  are  the  most  conspicuous  examples,  have  en- 
grafted on  the  old  criminal  laws  some  of  the  conspicuous  features  of  the  new  legislation, 
leaving,  however,  the  old  system  still  unreformed  in  its  fundamental  principle.  The 
resulting  confusion  is  best  illustrated  in  New  York.  Prior  to  1909,  the  child  offender 
was  regarded  as  a  criminal  and  after  conviction  was  released  on  parole  or  was  fined  for 
his  offense.  The  court  before  which  the  juvenile  delinquent  was  tried  was,  however,  a 
separate  children's  court.  In  1909  the  Legislature  took  one  step  in  advance  by  de- 
claring that  a  "child  of  more  than  7  or  less  than  16  shall  not  be  deemed  guilty  of  any 
crime,  but  of  juvenile  delinquency  only,"4  but  in  spite  of  this  declaration  children  may 
still  be  fined  for  delinquency  and  ordinary  criminal  procedure  is  followed  in  the 
trial.5  These  and  the  various  differences  between  the  legislation  in  those  states  which 
have  adopted  complete  juvenile  court  laws  can  be  brought  out  only  by  a  detailed 
statement  of  the  various  parts  of  the  laws. 

1  Alabama's  law  applies  only  to  Mobile  County.     General  act  applying  to  trie 
state  passed  in  1907  was  repealed  the  same  year  at  a  special  session  of  the  Legislature. 

2  This  was  changed  by  statute  in  a  number  of  states  to  ten  years  and  in  others  to 
twelve. 

3  This  is  the  language  of  the  law  in  Colorado  (L.  1903,  ch.  85,  No.  12),  Mo.  (L. 
1909,  p.  431,  No.  33)  and  Tenn.  (L.  1905,  ch.  516,  sec.  1 1).     The  language  of  the  Act 
establishing  the  Buffalo  court  is  perhaps  the  most  recent  statement  of  this  principle. 

4  N.  Y.  B.  C.  &  G's  Consol.  Laws  1909  p.  4095  Sec.  2186. 

*  For  example,  smoking  is  a  misdemeanor  in  a  child  punishable  by  a  fine  of 
from  two  to  ten  dollars.  B.  C.  &  G's  Consol.  Laws  1909  p.  2832  Sec.  486,  Subdiv.  6. 

247 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 


I.    THE  COURT  GIVEN  JURISDICTION 

In  a  few  states  a  special  court  is  created  which  is  given  jurisdiction  over  juvenile 
offenders  alone.1  Most  states  have  found,  however,  that  it  presented  fewer  legal 
difficulties  to  give  to  some  court  already  established  this  special  jurisdiction.  In 
California,2  Georgia,3  Indiana,4  Iowa,5  Louisiana,8  Minnesota,7  Missouri,8  Nebraska,* 
Oregon,10  Utah,11  and  Wisconsin,12  it  has  been  given  to  the  circuit  or  district  court; 
in  Illinois,13  New  Jersey,14  Ohio,15  Tennessee,18  and  Texas17  to  the  circuit  or  county  court; 
in  Alabama,18  Colorado,19  Kentucky,20  Kansas,21  Michigan,22  and  Washington,23  in  the 
County  Court.  In  these  states  it  is  unquestionably  easier  to  secure  an  able  man  for  judge 
of  the  Juvenile  Court  because  of  the  dignity  and  prestige  which  go  with  those  judgeships. 
When,  as  in  California,24 Connecticut,25  Massachusetts,28  Maryland,27  New  Hampshire.28 

1  D.  C.  34  U.  S.  Statutes  at  Large  73. 

Colo.  L.  1907  ch.  149  No.  i  (applies  to  counties  or  municipalities  having  a 
population  of  100,000). 

Ind.  L.  1903  chap.  237  sec.  i    (applies  to  counties  having  a  city  of  100,000). 

La.  L.  1908  No.  83,  sec.  i  (applies  to  parish  of  New  Orleans). 

Mass.  L.  1906  ch.  489  sees,  i,  2  and  3  (Court  of  Boston). 

Mich.  Local  Acts,  1907,  No.  684.sec.  2  (County  of  Wayne). 

Md.  L.  1907  No.  325,  No.  2  (applies  to  cities  of  20,000). 

Mo.  L.  1903  p.  213,  No.  i  (St.  Louis  Juvenile  Court). 

Utah.  L.  1907  ch.  139,  sec.  i  (In  judicial  districts  containing  cities  of  first  and 
second  class). 

2  Calif.  L.  1905  ch.  610  sec.  2  (Superior  Court  and  Police  Court  also). 

5  Ga.  L.  1908  p.  1 107  (Superior  Court). 

4  Ind.  L.  1903  ch.  237  sec.  i  (In  counties  having  no  cities  of  100,000). 

6  la.  L.  1904  ch.  1 1  sec.  i. 

•  La.  L.  1908  No.  83  sees,  i  and  6  (Except  in  parish  of  New  Orleans). 

I  Minn.  L.  1905  ch.  285  sec.  2  (In  counties  having  population  of  50,000  or  more). 
8  Mo.  L.  1909  p.  425  No.  2  (In  counties  having  a  population  of  150,000  to 

500,000). 

'  Nebr.  Compiled  Statutes,  1909,  No.  2796  sec.  2. 

10  Oregon.  L.  1907  ch.  34  sees.  2  and  3  (In  counties  having  a  population  of 
100,000  to  25,000). 

II  Utah.  L.  1907  ch.  139  sec.  3  (In  counties  not  having  cities  of  first  and  second 
class). 

12  Wis.  L.  1907  p.  127  sec.  2,  No.  573  (Court  of  Record). 

13  ///.  Revised  Statute  1908  ch.  23  sec.  170. 

14  N.  J.  L.  1908  ch.  236  (Court  of  Common  Pleas). 

15  Ohio.  L.  of  Apr.  24,  1908  sec.  i  (Court  of  Common  Pleas,  Probate  courts  and, 
where  established,  insolvency  or  superior  court). 

18  Tenn.  L.  1905  ch.  516  sec.  2  (Any  judge  of  any  criminal,  circuit,  or  county 
court). 

17  Texas.  General  Laws  1907  ch.  65  sec.  2  (County  and  District  courts). 

18  Ala.  Local  Acts  1907  p.  363  sec.  3  (The  Inferior  criminal,  the  probate  courts 
of  Mobile  County  and  the  recorder's  court  of  Mobile). 

19  Colo.  L.  1903  ch.  85,  sec.  2. 

20  Ken.  L.  1908  ch.  67,  sec.  2. 

21  Kans.  L.  1905  ch.  190  sec.  i. 

22  Mich.  L.  1907  no.  325  sec.  2. 

23  Wash.  L.  1905  ch.  18  sec.  2  ("Superior  Courts  in  the  several  counties"). 

24  Calif.  Penal  Code  1906  Appendix  p.  325.     Also  Superior  Court. 

25  Conn.  L.  1905  ch.  142  sees,  i  and  4  (any  criminal  court). 
28  Mass.  L.  1906  ch.  413  sec.  i  (Outside  of  Boston). 

27  Md.  L.  1904  ch.  521. 

28  N.  H.  L.  1907  ch.  125. 

248 


TOPICAL  ABSTRACT   OF  JUVENILE   COURT   LAWS 

New  York,1  Pennsylvania,2  and  Rhode  Island,3  a  police  judge  is  made  the  judge  of 
the  Children's  Court,  the  opposite  effect  is  produced. 

In  the  states  which  have  the  better  and  more  complete  type  of  laws  especial 
provision  is  made  that  the  police  court  and  justices  of  the  peace  are  not  to  have  juris- 
diction over  those  who  come  under  the  age  fixed  by  the  Juvenile  Court  Act.4  In 
some  of  the  states  in  which  jurisdiction  is  lodged  in  the  police,  county,  or  circuit  courts, 
the  judges  each,  in  turn,  sit  as  judges  of  the  Juvenile  Court,  but  in  California,5  Illinois,8 
Michigan,7  Minnesota,8  Missouri,9  Nebraska,10  Ohio,11  Oregon,12  Pennsylvania,13  and  Wis- 
consin,14 one  of  the  judges  is  chosen  by  his  associates  to  act  exclusively  as  judge  of  the 
Juvenile  Court  during  the  judicial  year.  The  judges  of  the  Juvenile  Courts  of  Denver,1 
Detroit,18  New  Orleans  17  and  Rochester  18  are  elected;  those  of  Boston  19  and  Balti- 


1  N.  Y.  L.  1906  ch.  317  (Rochester)  B.  C.  &  G's  Consol.  Laws,  1909  p.  3836 
sec.  487. 

2  Pa.  Purdon's  Digest  p.  188  sec.  50  (may  try  or  if  good  of  state  or  child 
demands  it  may  certificate  to  Juvenile  Court). 

3  R.  I.  L.  1899  ch.  664  sec.  i .     (Jurisdiction  of  established  courts  left  untouched. 
Only  provision  is  that  the  trial  of  the  children  must  be  separate  and  apart  from  that 
of  adults.) 

4  Colo.  L.  1903  ch.  85  No.  7. 

D.  C.  34  U.  S.  Statutes  at  Large  73  sec.  8. 

///.  R.  S.  1908  ch.  23  sec.  178. 

Ind.  L.  1907  ch.  203  (Except  when  offense  is  punishable  by  death  or  life  im- 
prisonment). 

Kans.  L.  1905  ch.  190  sec.  1 1. 

Ken.  L.  1908  ch.  64  sec.  5  (Except  in  case  of  felony). 

Micb.  L.  1907  No.  325  sec.  6. 

Mo.  L.  1909  p.  425  sec.  6  (Sec.  8  provides  that  any  court  may  originate  proceed- 
ings, but  trial  is  to  be  in  Juvenile  Court). 

N.  J.  L.  1903  ch.  219  sec.  i. 

N.  Y.  Charter  of  N.  Y.  City  sec.  1418  (Must  be  transferred  to  children's  court). 

Ohio.  L.  of  Apr.  24,  1908  sec.  9. 

Ore.  L.  1907  ch.  34  sec.  1 1. 

Tenn.  L.  1905  ch.  516  sec.  6. 

Texas.  General  Laws  1907  ch.  65  sec.  5. 

Wasln.  L.  1905  ch.  18  sec.  10. 

Wis.  L.  1903  ch.  97  sec.  5  (When  charged  with  crime  punishment  for  which  is 
imprisonment). 

6  Calif.  Penal  Code  1906  Appendix  325. 

8  ///.  R.  S.  1908  ch.  23  sec.  171  (In  counties  of  over  50,000  population). 

7  Mich.  L.  1905  No.  312  sec.  2. 

8  Minn.  L.  1905  ch.  285  sec.  3. 
8  Mo.  L.  1909  p.  435  sec.  2. 

10  Nebr.  Compiled  statutes  1909  Sec.  2796,  3  (In  counties  of  over  40,000  popula- 
tion). 

11  Ohio.  L.  Apr.  24,  1908  sec.  i. 

12  Oregon.  L.  1907  ch.  34,  sec.  2. 

13  Pa.  Purdon's  Digest  p.  57  sec.  2. 

14  Wisconsin   L.  1907  p.  127  sec.  573,  2. 

15  Colo.  L.  1907  ch.  149,  No.  5  (Must  have  the  qualifications  of  a  district  judge. 
Term  is  four  years). 

16  Mich.  Local  Acts  1907  No.  684  sec.  2  (Term  four  years). 

17  La.  L.  1908  No.  83  sec.  2 — Term  four  years. 

18  N.  Y.  L.  1906  ch.  317 — (Court  is,  however,  a  branch  of  the  police  court). 

19  Mass.  L.  1906  ch.  489  sees,  i,  2,  and  3,  Terms  five  years.     Salary  $3,000  per 
annum. 

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THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 

more '  are  appointed  by  the  Governor,  of  Washington,  D.  C.,2  by  the  president  and 
in  Utah  s  by  the  Juvenile  Court  Commission. 

II.    EXTENT  OF  JURISDICTION 

A.    AGE  LIMITATION 

In  the  great  majority  of  states  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Juvenile  Court  extends 
to  children  of  16  4  or  17  6  years  of  age.  But  in  Illinois*  and  Kentucky  1  the  limitation 
is  for  boys  17  and  girls  18,  in  Louisiana,8  Nebraska,9  and  Oregon10  18  for  both,  and  in 
Utah11  19  for  both  boys  and  girls. 

B.    DEFINITION  OF  DELINQUENCY 

In  the  earlier  laws  a  "delinquent"  child  was  defined  as  one  (I)  who  had  violated 
a  state  law  or  a  city  or  village  ordinance,  or  (II)  who  was  incorrigible.  Laws  of  this 

1  Md.  L.  1904  ch.  521  sec.  i  (Baltimore  judge  is  an  additional  justice  of  the 
peace). 

2  D.  C.  34  United  States  Statutes  at  Large  73,  sec.  2  (Term  6  years,  salary 
$3,000). 

J  Utah.  L.  1907  ch.  139  sec.  i  (In  judicial  districts  containing  cities  of  the 
first  and  second  class.  The  Juvenile  Court  Commission  of  Utah  consists  of  the 
Governor,  Attorney  General,  and  State  Superintendent  of  Instruction.  (L.  1907  ch. 
1 39  sec.  i .) 

*  Calif.  L.  1907  ch.  427  sec.  i. 
Ga.  L.  1908  p.  1 1  sec.  7. 

la.  1907  Supplement  to  Code,  Title  III  ch.  5~b  sec.  254,  14. 
Kans.  L.  1905  ch.  190  sec.  2. 
Md.  L.  1904  ch.  521  Sec.  i  (Applies  to  Baltimore). 
M.  L.  1909  p.  423  (Jurisdiction  continues  until  child  is  21). 
N.  J .  L.  1903  chap.  219,  as  amended  by  L.  1908  ch.  236  sec.  i. 
N.  Y.  Penal  Code  1908  sec.  291  Subdiv.  7;   N.  Y.  City  charter  sec.  1418;    i. 
1907  ch.  755  sec.  470  (applies  to  Rochester). 

Ohio.  L.  1904  p.  621  sec.  2  (applies  to  cities  of  more  than  380,000). 

Pa.  L.  1903  No.  205  sec.  i. 

R.  I.  L.  1899  ch.  664  sec.  i. 

Texas.  L.  1907  ch.  64  sec.  i. 

6  Alabama.  Local  Acts  1907  p.  363  sec.  i  (Applies  to  Mobile  County). 

Colo.  L.  1903  ch.  85  sec.  i. 

D.  C.  34  U.  S.  Statutes  at  Large  73  sec.  8. 

Idaho.  L.  1905  p.  106  sec.  i. 

Ind.  L.  1907  ch.  203  sec.  3  (Boy  under  16 — Girl  under  17). 

Mass.  L.  1906  ch.  413  sec.  i  (Children  between  7  and  17). 

Mich.  Local  Acts  1907  No.  684  sec.  i  (Applies  to  Detroit)  Public  acts  1907. 

Minn.  L.  1907  ch.  285  sec.  i.     (Applies  to  state  generally.) 

Mo.  L.  1905  p.  56  sec.  i .     (Counties  having  population  from  1 50,000  to  499,999.) 

Mont.  L.  1907  ch.  97. 

N.  H.  L.  1907  ch.  125  sec.  i. 

Ohio.  L.  1908  p.  192  sec.  i. 

Okla.  L.  1903  ch.  1 8  sec.  i. 

Tenn.  L.  1905  ch.  516  sec.  I. 

WaA.  L.  1905  ch.  1 8  sec.  i. 

Wise.  L.  1907  p.  127. 

•  ///.  R.  S.  1908  ch.  23  sec.  169. 

I  Ken.  L.  1908  ch.  67  sec.  i. 

8  La.  L.  1908  No.  83  sec.  9. 

9  Nebr.  Compiled  Statutes  1909,  2796  sec.  i. 

10  Ore.  L.  1907  ch.  34  sec.  I. 

II  Utab.  Compiled  L.  1907;  Title  16,  ch.  9,  sec.  720  sec.  i. 

250 


TOPICAL   ABSTRACT  OF  JUVENILE   COURT   LAWS 

type  are  still  on  the  statute  books  in  California,1  Connecticut,2  District  of  Columbia,3 
Georgia,4  Maryland,5  Massachusetts,8  New  Jersey,7  New  York,8  Pennsylvania,9  and 
Rhode  Island.10  Better  laws  make  the  definition  much  more  inclusive  so  that  the 
court  will  not  be  unable,  because  of  any  technical  lack  of  jurisdiction,  to  place  a  child 
under  the  care  of  the  court  and  its  officers,  if  that  seems  to  be  for  the  best  interest 
of  the  child.  In  addition  to  I  and  II  already  mentioned,  as  constituting  delinquency,  the 
law  in  Alabama,11  Colorado,  ""Illinois,13  Indiana,14  Kentucky,15  Louisiana,18  Michigan,17 
Minnesota,18  Missouri,19  Nebraska,20  Ohio,21  Tennessee,22  Texas,23  Utah,24  and  Wash- 
ington,25 regards  as  a  delinquent  any  child  who  (a)  knowingly  associates  with  thieves, 
vicious  or  immoral  persons,  (fc)  absents  itself  from  home  without  the  consent  of  its 
parent  or  guardian  or  without  just  cause,  (c)  is  growing  up  in  idleness  or  crime,  (d) 
knowingly  visits  or  enters  a  house  of  ill  repute,  (e)  visits  or  patronizes  gambling  houses, 
saloons,  or  bucketshops,  (/)  wanders  about  the  street  at  night  or  about  railroad  yards 

1  Calif.  Penal  Code  1906,  Appendix  p.  625  (includes  only  d). 

2  Conn.  L.  190^  ch.  142  sec.  3 — (any  minor  arrested). 

3  D.  C.  34  U.  S.  Statutes  at  Large  73  sec.  8  (all  crimes  and  offenses,  not  capital 
and  not  punishable  by  imprisonment  in  the  penitentiary;  habitual  truancy  also). 

4  Ga.  L.  1908  p.  1 107  (A  delinquent  or  wayward  child  is  regarded  as  one  who 
has  violated  some  law). 

5  M d.  L.  1904  ch.  521  sec.  i  (Contains  no  special  definition.    Children  charged 
with  "crime"  or  "misdemeanor"  are  tried  by  Juvenile  Court). 

8  Mass.  L.  1906  ch.  413  sec.  i  ("Delinquent"  child  is  one  who  violates  any 
state  law  or  city  ordinance.  "Wayward"  child  is  one  who  "knowingly  associates 
with  thieves,  vicious  or  immoral  persons,  or  is  growing  up  in  circumstances  exposing 
him  or  her  to  lead  an  immoral,  vicious  or  criminal  life.") 

7  N.  J .  L.  1908  ch.  236  sec.  i  (Adds  to  (a)  and  (b)  "disorderly"  and  "habitu- 
ally vagrant"  children). 

8  N.  Y.  Penal  Code  1908  Sec.  289  Subdiv.  8  adds  "disorderly"  children,  those 
who  desert  their  homes  without  good  or  sufficient  cause,  keep  company  with  dissolute, 
immoral  or  vicious  children  and  "ungovernable"  children;    those  not  susceptible  of 
proper  restraint  by  their  parents  or  guardians,  or  who  are  habitually  disobedient  to 
their  reasonable  and  lawful  commands. 

'  Pa.  L.  1903  No.  205  sec.  i.  "Incorrigible"  child  defined  as  one  charged 
by  its  parents  or  guardians  with  being  "unmanageable"  and  "delinquent"  child  one 
who  violates  any  state  law  or  city  ordinance. 

10  R.I.  L.  1899  ch.  664  sec.  i. 

11  Ala.  Local  Acts  1907  p.  363  sec.  i. 
tt  Colo.  L.  1903  ch.  85  sec.  i. 

13  Ills.  R.  S.  1908  ch.  23  sec.  169. 

14  Ind.  L.  1905  ch.  145  sec.  i    (In  addition,  any  child  who  smokes  cigarettes  or 
loiters  about  any  school  building  or  yard). 

15  Ken.  L.  1908  ch.  67  sec.  i  (In  addition,  any  child  who  is  persistently  truant). 

16  La.  L.  1908  No.  83  sec.  9. 

17  Mich.  L.  1907  No.  325  (In  addition,  any  child  who  is  persistently  truant  from 
school). 

18  Minn.  L.  1905  ch.  285  sec.  i. 

v  Mo.  L.  1909  p.  423  sec.  i.  (In  addition,  any  child  who  is  habitually  truant 
or  one  who  "loiters  or  sleeps  in  alleys,  cellars,  wagons,  buildings,  lots  or  other  exposed 
places.") 

M  Nebr.  Compiled  Statutes  1909  2796  sec.  i. 

Z1  Ohio.  L.  1908  p.  192  sec.  5. 

22  Tenn.  L.  1905  ch.  516  sec.  i. 

23  Texas  General  Laws  1907  ch.  65  sec.  i. 

14  Utah.  L.  1907  ch.  139  sec.  13  and  in  addition,  any  child  who  writes  or  draws 
anything  vile,  obscene  or  vulgar  on  any  wall,  fence,  or  building. 
25  Was}).  L.  1905  ch.  1 8  sec.  i. 

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THE    DELINQUENT   CHILD   AND   THE    HOME 

or  tracks,  (g)  jumps  on  and  off  trains,  (b)  enters  a  car  or  engine  without  lawful  au- 
thority, (i)  uses  vile,  obscene  or  indecent  language  or  is  (/)  immoral  or  indecent. 

In  Iowa,1  Kansas,1  New  Hampshire,3  Oregon,4  and  Wisconsin,5  the  definitions 
are  not  quite  so  broad. 


III.     PROCEDURE 
A.    PETITION  OR  COMPLAINT 

In  the  general  procedure  prescribed  for  the  Juvenile  Courts  the  line  of  demar- 
cation can  easily  be  drawn  between  those  states  whose  legislation  consistently  regards 
the  youthful  offender  as  a  delinquent  and  those  whose  legislation  regards  him  as  a 
criminal  but  treats  him  somewhat  differently  from  the  adult  criminal.  In  the  former 
group,  the  first  step  is  the  filing  of  a  "petition"  by  any  reputable  person  which  is  based 
upon  his  information  or  belief  that  the  child  named  in  the  petition  is  delinquent.9 
In  the  District  of  Columbia  the  suit  is  begun  upon  information  filed  by  the  Corporation 
Counsel.7  In  Alabama,8  Colorado,9  Massachusetts,10  Missouri,11  Texas,12  Utah,18  and 
Washington,14  the  old  word  "  complaint "  is  used.  Pennsylvania  provides  that  the  court 

I  Iowa,  L.  1904  ch.  ii  sec.  2  Definition  includes  (a)  (b)  (c)  (d)  (e)  (f)  (g)  (i)  of 
above. 

*  Kans.L.  1905  ch.  190  sec.  2.     Definition  includes  (a)  (b)  (c)  (d)  and  (e)  of 
above. 

3  N.  H.  L.  1907  ch.  125  sec.  i.     Definition  includes  (a)  (b)  (c)  (d)  (e)  and  (f). 

4  Ore.  L.  1907  ch.  34  sec.  i.    Definition  includes  (a)  (b)  (c)  (d)  (e)  (f)  and  any 
child  persistently  truant. 

8  Wise.  L.  1907  p.  127  sec.  573  (i)  definition  includes  a,  b,  c,  d,  e,  f,  k  and  any 
child  persistently  truant  from  school,  but  the  Juvenile  Court  does  not  have  jurisdiction 
over  offenses  punishable  by  imprisonment  in  the  penitentiary. 

*  This  is  the  law  in 

Calif.  Penal  Code  1906  Appendix  625  sec.  3. 

III.  R.  S.  1908  ch.  23  sec.  172. 

Iowa  L.  1904  ch.  1 1  sec.  3. 

Kans.  L.  1905  ch.  190  sec.  4. 

Ken.  L.  1 908  ch.  67  sec.  4. 

La.  L.  1908  No.  83  sec.  1 1 — called  an  "affidavit"  instead  of  "petition." 

Mich.  L.  1907  No.  325  sec.  5. 

Minn.  L.  1905  ch.  285  sec.  4. 

Mo.  L.  1909  p.  425  sec.  3. 

Nebr.  Compiled  Statutes  1909  Sec.  2796,  4. 

N.  H.  L.  1907  ch.  125  sec.  i. 

Ohio  L.  1908  p.  192  sec.  7 — called  "affidavit"  instead  of  "petition." 

Ore.  L.  1907  ch.  34  sec.  4. 

Tenn.  L.  1905  ch.  516  sec.  3. 

Wise.  L.  1903  ch.  94  sec.  3. 

7  D.  C.  34  U.  S.  Statutes  at  Large  73,  12. 

8  Ala.  Local  Acts  1907  p.  363  sec.  5.  (Information  or  complaint  of  probation 
officer,  chief  of  police  or  county  attorney.) 

9  Colo.  L.  1903  ch.  85  sec.  3. 

10  Mass.  L.  1906  ch.  413  sec.  3. 

II  Mo.  L.  1909  p.  425  sec.  7  (Regular  prosecuting  officer  for  the  county  or  any 
probation  officer  may  file  complaint). 

12  Texas  L.  1907  ch.  65  sec.  3 — filed  by  District  or  County  Attorney,  under  the 
general  law  of  the  state. 

13  Utah  L.  1907  ch.  139  sec.  2. 

14  Wasb.  L.  1908  ch.  18  sec.  4. 

252 


TOPICAL   ABSTRACT  OF  JUVENILE   COURT   LAWS 

may  act  when  a  petition  is  filed  by  a  reputable  person  or  when  the  Justice  of  the  Peace, 
the  District  Attorney  or  the  Judge  of  the  Juvenile  Court  thinks  the  case  in  the  interests 
of  the  child  should  not  go  to  the  Grand  Jury.1  Indiana  makes  complaint  under  oath 
necessary.2  No  provision  is  made  for  a  special  form  of  petition  in  states  like  Mary- 
land, New  York,  and  New  Jersey,  where  action  must,  therefore,  be  begun  by  a  com- 
plaint the  same  as  when  the  offender  is  an  adult. 


B.     SUMMONS  OR  WARRANT 

The  substitution  of  the  petition  for  the  complaint  is  not  as  general  as  the  sub- 
stitution of  the  summons  for  the  warrant.  In  a  large  number  of  states  the  law  pro- 
vides that  after  the  filing  of  the  petition  or  the  complaint  a  "summons"  shall  be  sent 
to  the  person  having  the  custody  or  control  of  the  child  to  appear  with  it  in  court. 
Notice  to  the  parents,  guardians  or  near  relatives  is  also  required  in  these  states. 
Lest  this,  however,  leave  the  court  without  authority  to  compel  attendance,  a  pro- 
vision is  added  that  a  warrant  may  issue  when  service  by  summons  is  ineffectual  or 
likely  to  be  and  failure  to  obey  the  summons  may  be  treated  as  contempt  of  court.3 
The  only  provision  in  the  District  of  Columbia  is  that  the  Juvenile  Court  shall  have  the 
same  power  to  issue  process  for  arrest,  subpoena,  etc.  as  other  courts.4  In  Utah  if 
the  parent  or  guardian  fails  to  appear  after  notice  has  been  given,  and  defend  his  rights 
to  the  custody,  control  or  guardianship  of  the  child  charged  with  delinquency,  such 
rights  go  by  default  and  the  court  disposes  of  the  child  as  it  finds,  from  the  evidence,  to 
be  best.6  Pennsylvania  gives  the  judge  authority  "to  make  all  necessary  orders  for 
compelling  the  production  of  such  child  and  the  attendance  of  parents."'  Alabama 


1  Pa.  Purdon's  Digest  p.  1881  "51. 

2  Ind.  L.  1907  ch.  203  sec.  i. 

3  These  provisions  are  found  in 

Calif.  Penal  Code  1906  Appendix  p.  626  sec.  5. 

Colo.  L.  1903  ch.  85  sec.  6,  p.  626  sec.  5. 

///.  R.  S.  1908  ch.  23  sec.  173. 

Iowa  L.  1904  ch.  ii  sec.  4. 

Kans.  L.  1905  ch.  190  sec.  5. 

Ken.  L.  1908  ch.  69  sec.  4. 

La.  L.  1908  No.  83  sec.  1 1. 

Mass.  L.  1906  ch.  413  sec.  3.     (Does  not  mention  contempt.) 

Mich.  L.  1907  No.  325  sec.  5.  (Summons  issues  only  after  investigation  by  the 
County  agent  and  the  court,  after  hearing  his  report,  deems  it  for  the  interest  of  the 
public.) 

Minn.  L.  1906  ch.  285  sec.  5. 

Mo.  L.  1909  p.  425  sec.  4.     (Failure  to  obey  is  contempt  of  court.) 

Nebr.  Compiled  Statutes  1909  Sec.  2796,  5. 

N.  H.  L.  1907  ch.  125  sec.  5. 

Ohio  L.  1908  sec.  8.    ("Citation"  instead  of  "petition.") 

Ore.  L.  1907  ch.  34  sec.  5. 

Tenn.  L.  1905  ch.  516  sec.  5. 

Texas  General  Laws  1907  ch.  65  sec.  4. 

WasTo.  L.  1905  ch.  18  sec.  5. 

Wise.  L.  1901  ch.  90  sec.  5. 

4  D.  C.  34  U.  S.  Statutes  at  Large  73,  17. 
6  Utah.  L.  1907  ch.  139  sec.  3. 

*  Pa.  Purdon's  Digest  p.  1888  sec.  52,  L.  1907  Act  298  sec.  4  provides  that 
sheriffs  and  constables  must  aid  in  the  service  of  process,  etc. 

253 


THE    DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND   THE    HOME 

provides  that  a  warrant  or  capias  may  issue.1  New  York,  Maryland,  Rhode  Island, 
and  Connecticut  have  no  special  provisions  for  this,  so  the  method  of  arrest  usual  in 
criminal  actions  is  followed. 


C.    TRIAL 

State  constitutions  carefully  provide  for  the  trial  of  persons  accused  of  crime, 
but  these  provisions  do  not  apply  to  the  Juvenile  Court  procedure  in  those  states  in 
which  the  child  is  regarded  not  as  a  criminal  but  as  a  delinquent.  In  the  case  of  the 
latter,  the  state,  as  parens  patrice,  is  governed  only  by  the  consideration  of  what  is 
for  the  best  interests  of  the  chi[d,  and  courts  would  undoubtedly  sustain  any  procedure 
which  had  this  end  in  view. 

It  has  been  found  best  to  make  the  trial  quite  informal  so  that  an  intimate, 
friendly  relationship  may  be  established  at  once  between  the  judge  and  the  child. 
To  make  this  possible  the  laws  provide  in  Indiana,2  Iowa,3  Kansas,4  Kentucky,5  Minne- 
sota,6 Missouri,7  New  Hampshire,8  New  Jersey,9  Ohio,10  Oregon,11  Washington,12  and 
Wisconsin 13  that  the  court  shall  proceed  to  hear  and  dispose  of  the  case  in  a  "summary 
manner."  In  Utah  the  court  is  regarded  as  exercising  equity  jurisdiction  and  "may 
adopt  any  form  of  procedure  which  is  deemed  best  suited  to  ascertain  the  truth  in  the 
particular  case.  The  delinquent  may  be  compelled  to  testify  respecting  his  alleged 
delinquency  and  the  court  may  hear  evidence  in  the  absence  of  the  delinquent." 14 

In  contrast  with  this  law  New  Jersey15  and  New  York16  require  that  the  regular 
criminal  procedure  so  far  as  applicable  shall  be  used.  In  Michigan  the  regular  criminal 
procedure  must  be  used  when  the  child  is  charged  with  felony.17  To  deprive  an  adult 
of  his  liberty  without  a  jury  trial  would  be  regarded  as  a  violation  of  the  "due  process" 
clause  in  the  United  States  Constitution.  While  this  provision  is  not  interpreted  as 
guaranteeing  a  jury  trial  to  a  child,  in  an  abundance  of  caution,  provision  is  usually 
made,  even  in  states  in  which  the  law  makes  it  very  clear  that  the  child  is  regarded  not 
as  criminal  but  as  delinquent,  for  a  jury  of  six  when  demanded  by  the  child  or  when 

1  Ala.  L.  1907  p.  363  sec.  6. 

2  Ind.  L.  1907  ch.  203  sec.  3. 

3  Iowa  L.  1904  ch.  1 1  sec.  4. 

4  Kan.  L.  1905  ch.  190  sec.  <j. 
6  Ken.  L.  1908  ch.  67  sec.  4. 

6  Minn.  L.  1905  ch.  285  sec.  5. 

7  Mo.  L.  1909  p.  425  sec.  4. 

8  N.  H.  L.  1907  ch.  125  sec.  5. 

9  N.  J.  L.  1903  ch.  219  sec.  3. 

10  Ohio  L.  1908  p.  194  sec.  10. 

11  Ore.  L.  1907  ch.  34  sec.  5. 

12  Was}}.  L.  1905  ch.  1 8  sec.  5. 

13  Wise.  Sup.  to  Wise.  St.  of  1898  sec.  573,  5  subdivision  2. 

14  Utah  L.  1907  ch.  139  sec.  5. 

u  N.  J.  L.  1903  ch.  2 19  sees.  2,  3,  and  4.  (Child  must  plead  to  charge  delinquent, 
be  advised  of  his  right  to  Grand  Jury,  etc.) 

16  N.  Y.  Charter  N.  Y.  City  sec.  1418.  B.  C.  &  G's  Consol.  Laws  1909  p.  3836 
sec.  487. 

"Mich.  L.  1907  No.  325  sec.  2. 


254 


TOPICAL   ABSTRACT  OF  JUVENILE   COURT   LAWS 

the  judge  deems  it  advisable.1  There  is,  however,  another  reason  for  such  a  provi- 
sion. The  parent  is  entitled  to  his  child's  earnings,  so  in  the  disposition  which  the 
court  makes  of  a  child  the  property  rights  of  an  adult  may  be  affected. 


D.    APPEAL 

The  District  of  Columbia, 2  Indiana,3  Iowa,4  Kansas,5  Massachusetts,8  Missouri,7 
New  Hampshire,8  Utah,*  and  Wisconsin,10  make  special  provision  for  an  appeal  from 
the  decision  of  the  Judge  of  the  Juvenile  Court  although  it  is  not  necessary  where  a 
general  trial  court  is  given  jurisdiction  over  juvenile  offenders. 


IV.     RECORDS  AND  REPORTS 

A  separate  Juvenile  Record  must  be  kept  in  Alabama,11  California,12  Colorado,13 
Illinois,14  Indiana,15  Iowa,18  Kentucky,17  Massachusetts,18  Michigan,19  Minnesota,20  Mis- 

1  Ala.  Local  Acts  1907  p.  363  sec.  3. 
Colo.  L.  1903  ch.  85  sec.  2. 

D.  C.  34  U.  S.  Statutes  at  Large  73  sec.  12  (Must  be  jury  unless  accused  in  open 
court  expressly  waives  the  right). 
Ga.  L.  1908  p.  1 107. 
Ind.  L.  1907  ch.  203  sec.  i. 
Iowa.  L.  1904  ch.  i 1  sec.  4  (Must  be  a  jury). 

Ken.  L.  1908  ch.  67  sec.  2  (Shall  be  granted  as  in  other  cases  unless  waived). 
Mich.  L.  1907  No.  325  sec.  2. 
Mo.  L.  1909  p.  425  sec.  2. 
Nebr.  Compiled  Statutes  1909  sec.  2796,  2. 
N.  J .  L.  1903  ch.  219  sec.  7  (When  offense  constitutes  a  crime). 
Ohio.  L.  1908  p.  194  sec.  1 1. 
Ore.  L.  1907  ch.  34  sec.  12. 
Texas.  L.  1907  ch.  65  sec.  2.     (Delinquents.) 
ch.  64  sec.  2.     (Dependents.) 
Wise.  L.  1907  p.  129  sec.  573-2  (7). 

2  D.  C.  34  U.  S.  Statutes  at  Large  73  sec.  22  (By  either  U.  S.  or  accused). 

3  Ind.  L.  1907  ch.  136  sec.  i  (Both  as  to  questions  of  fact  and  law). 

4  Iowa.  L.  1904  ch.  1 1  sec.  4  (Defendant  alone  has  the  right). 

'  Kans.  L.  1905  ch.  190  sec.  12.    ("Final  hearing  and  disposition  to  be  in  the 
spirit  of  the  act.") 

8  Mass.  L.  1906  ch.  413  sec.  5. 

1  Mo.  L.  1909  p.  430  sec.  21  (May  be  taken  by  relative  of  fourth  degree). 
*  N.  H.  L.  1907  ch.  125  sec.  18. 

9  Utah.  L.  1907  ch.  139  sec.  7  (By  parent  or  guardians). 

10  Wise.  L.  1907  p.  133  sec.  573,  D  and  3. 

11  Ala.  Local  Acts,  1907  p.  363  sec.  n. 

12  Calif.  Penal  Code  Appendix  p.  625  sec.  2. 

13  Colo.  L.  1907  ch.  168  sec.  2  (Also  a  Juvenile  Docket). 

14  III.  R.  S.  igoSch.  23  sec.  171. 

15  Ind.  L.  1903  ch.  237  sec.  i. 
18  Iowa.  L.  1904  ch.  n  sec.  i. 

17  Ken.  L.  1908  ch.  67  sec.  2  (Also  a  Juvenile  Docket). 

18  Mass.  L.  1906  ch.  413  sec.  6  (Also  a  Juvenile  Docket). 

19  Mich.  L.  1907  No.  325  sec.  3. 

20  Minn.  L.  1905  ch.  283  sec.  3. 

255 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 

souri,1  Nebraska,*  New  York,3  New  Hampshire,4  Ohio,5  Oregon,8  Tennessee,7 
Texas,8  Utah,8  Washington,10  and  Wisconsin.11  For  the  courts  of  the  District  of 
Columbia,12  Baltimore13  and  New  York  City14  the  statutes  provide  also  for  a  sepa- 
rate clerk.  A  report  of  the  cases  which  does  not  disclose  the  name  or  identity  of  the 
child  or  parent  must  be  made  in  Kansas,16  Kentucky,18  Missouri,17  and  New  York 18 
to  the  Governor,  in  Utah,18  to  the  Juvenile  Court  Commission,  in  Colorado 20  to  the 
State  Board  of  Charities  and  Corrections  and  in  Tennessee21  to  the  County  Court. 

V.     PLACE  WHERE  COURT  IS  HELD  AND  EXCLUSION  OF  THE  PUBLIC 

While  the  ideal  way  is  to  have,  as  Chicago  and  Milwaukee  have,  a  separate 
Juvenile  Court  building,  this  can  hardly  be  required  by  law  as  yet.  A  number  of  the 
states,  however,  make  it  necessary  to  hold  Juvenile  Court  in  a  separate  room.22 
California,  Oregon,  and  Washington  provide  that  juvenile  cases  should  be  heard  at  a 
special  session  of  the  court  and  no  one  else  on  trial  or  awaiting  trial  shall  be  allowed  to 
be  present.23  Maryland  and  Michigan  laws  provide  that  the  trial  must  be  held  in  some 

1  Mo.  L.  1909  p.  423  sec.  2. 

2  Nebr.  Compiled  Statutes  1909  sec.  2796,  3. 

3  N.  Y.  L.  1906  ch.  317  (Also  a  Juvenile  docket;  applies  to  Rochester)  B.  C.  & 
G's  Consol.  Laws  1909  p.  3830  sec.  487. 

4  N.  H.  L.  1907  ch.  125  sec.  3  (A  Juvenile  Docket). 

5  Obio.  L.  1908  p.  192  sec.  3. 
8  Ore.  L.  1907  ch.  34  sec.  3. 

7  Tenn.  L.  1905  ch.  516  sec.  2.     (Also  a  Juvenile  Docket.) 

8  Texas.  Gen.  L.  1907  ch.  65  sec.  2. 
8  Utah.  L.  1907  ch.  139  sec.  i. 

10  IVasb.  L.  1905  ch.  18  sec.  3. 

11  Wise.  L.  1907  ch.  34  sec.  3. 

12  D.  C.  34  U.  S.  Statutes  at  Large  73  sec.  6. 

13  Md.  L.  1904  ch.  521. 

14  N.  Y.  L.  2902  ch.  50. 

18  Kans.  L.  1907  ch.  177  sec.  1 1. 
18  Ken.  L.  1908  ch.  67  sec.  2. 

17  Mo.  L.  1909  p.  425  No.  2. 

18  N.  Y.  L.  1902  ch.  590  sec.  2— (City  of  N.  Y.) 
18  Utah.  L.  1907  ch.  139  sec.  12. 

20  Colo.  L.  1903  ch.  85  sec.  2. 

21  Tenn.  L.  1905  ch.  516  sec.  2. 

22  Ilh.  R.  S.  1908  ch.  23  sec.  171  (In  counties  having  population  of  500,000). 
Ind.  L.  1907  ch.  203  sec.  2. 

Ken.  L.  1908  ch.  67  sec.  2  (In  counties  containing  city  of  the  first  class). 
La.  L.  1908  No.  33  sec.  3  (City  of  New  Orleans  shall  provide  suitable  accommo- 
dations for  the  court  in  a  building  separate  from  the  criminal  court  building). 
Mass.  L.  1906  ch.  413  sec.  6. 
Minn.  L.  1905  ch.  285  sec.  3. 
Miss.  L.  1905  p.  57  sec.  2. 
Mo.  L.  1909  p.  425  sec.  2. 

Nebr.  Compiled  Statutes  No.  2796  sec.  3  (In  counties  having  over  40,000). 
N.  H.  L.  1907  ch.  34  sec.  3. 

N.  Y.  B.  C.  &  G's  Consol.  Laws,  1909  p.  3836  sec.  487. 

Ohio.  L.  1908  sec.  3  p.  194  sec.  9  (Not  used  for  criminal  cases  when  avoidable). 
Pa.  Purdon's  Digest,  p.  1881  sec.  50. 

23  Calif.  Penal  Code  1906  Appendix  p.  625  sec.  2. 
Ore.  L.  1907  ch.  34  sec.  3. 

Wash.  L.  1905  ch.  18  sec.  3. 

256 


TOPICAL  ABSTRACT  OF  JUVENILE   COURT   LAWS 

"proper"  place  in  the  Court  House.1  A  few  states  provide  that  the  trial  shall  not  be 
public  and  all  persons  who  are  not  necessary  to  it  shall  be  excluded.2  Although  this 
is  required  by  statute  in  only  a  few  of  the  states,  it  is  the  policy  of  the  judges  in  a  good 
many  places  to  exclude  children  and  adults  who  have  no  interest  in  the  case. 


VI.     DISPOSITION  OF  CHILD  PENDING  TRIAL 

Under  the  old  regime  the  child  offender  was  subject  to  the  rule  which  applies 
to  adults,  that  if  unable  to  give  bond  for  his  appearance  he  must  go  to  jail  to  await  his 
trial.  This,  because  it  brands  the  child  as  a  criminal  and  places  him  under  the  in- 
fluence of  the  hardened  offender,  is  a  most  objectionable  method.  For  these  reasons 
the  provision  is  made  in  a  few  of  the  states  that  anyone  who  knowingly  incarcerates  a 
child,  who  is  under  the  age  defined  by  law,  in  the  county  jail  or  police  station  is  guilty 
of  a  misdemeanor.3  More  often  the  law  provides  that  any  child  under  the  age  fixed 
by  the  Juvenile  Court  law  may  be  placed  in  the  detention  school  or  other  suitable 
places  provided  by  city  or  county  authorities  and  that  no  child  under  twelve,4  fourteen,5 
or  in  a  few  states  sixteen  or  seventeen  8  years  of  age,  shall  be  committed  to  jail  and 


1  Md.  L.  1904  ch.  521  (Applies  to  Baltimore). 
Mich.  L.  1907  No.  325  sec.  3. 

2  Ind.  L.  1907  ch.  1203,  sec.  2. 
La.  L.  1904  ch.  1 1,  sec.  7. 

Ken.  L.  1908  ch.  67,  sec.  4  (so  far  as  lawful). 

Mass.  L.  1906  ch.  489,  sec.  5. 

Mich.  L.  1907  No.  325,  sec.  3. 

N.  H.  L.  1907  ch.  125,  sec.  3.    (Newspapers  not  allowed  to  publish  proceedings.) 

3  Kans.  L.  1905  ch.  190  sec.  6.     (Except  when  child  is  charged  with  felony.) 
Ken.  L.  1908  ch.  67  sec.  4. 

La.  L.  1908  No.  83  sec.  1 1. 

Mo.  L.  1909  p.  428  sec.  14. 

Pa.  Purdon's  Digest  p.  1882  sec.  58. 

Utah.  L.  1907  ch.  139  sec.  5. 

4  III.  R.  S.  1908  p.  277  sec.  179. 
Mich.  L.  1907  No.  325  sec.  8. 

L.  1905  No.  312  sec.  7. 
Calif.  Penal  Code  1906  Appendix  630  sec.  17. 

5  Colo.  L.  1903  ch.  85  sec.  6. 
Idaho.  L.  1905  p.  loo  sec.  4. 

Ken.  L.  1908  ch.  67  sec.  4.  (Fine  of  $100  for  knowingly  violating  this  provi- 
sion.) 

Mass.  L.  1906  ch.  413  sec.  3.  (Except  when  arrested  in  the  act  of  violating  a 
law  of  the  commonwealth  or  on  a  warrant)  sec.  5.  (If  over  14  may  be  committed  to 
jail  if  court  thinks  he  will  not  otherwise  appear  for  trial.) 

Mon.  L.  1907  ch.  92  sec.  10. 

Nebr.  Compiled  Statutes  1909,  2796  sec.  1 1. 

Ohio.  L.  1908  p.  196  sec.  17. 

Tenn.  L.  1905  ch.  516  sec.  5. 

Wash.  L.  1905  ch.  18  sec.  9. 

Wise.  Sup.  to  St.  of  1898  sec.  573  subd.  9. 

8  Under  16  or  17  years  of  age. 

Kans.  L.  1905  ch.  190  sec.  6  (under  16). 

N.  H.  L.  1907  ch.  125  sec.  15  (under  17). 

Texas.  General  Laws  1907  ch.  6<>  sec.  4.  (under  16). 

Utah.  Compiled  L.  1907  Title  ID  ch.  12,  43  (under  17). 

257 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

those  over  this  age  if  confined  in  any  institution  where  adult  convicts  are,  must  not 
be  placed  in  the  same  buildings,  yard,  or  inclosure  with  the  adults.1 

The  Alabama  law  provides  that  in  Mobile  incarceration  shall  take  place  only 
when  necessary  and  that  the  child  shall  have  the  same  right  as  the  adult  to  give  bonds 
for  his  appearance  at  the  trial.2  In  Georgia  the  county  must,  upon  request  of  the  judge, 
provide  a  proper  detention  room  or  house  separate  from  the  jail.3  In  New  Jersey  an 
arrested  child  charged  with  any  crime  (except  murder  or  manslaughter)  or  with  being 
a  disorderly  person,  or  habitually  vagrant  or  incorrigible,  is  committed  to  jail  or  the 
detention  school  or  paroled  to  await  trial  at  the  discretion  of  the  Judge.4  The  Mary- 
land law  provides  that  in  the  absence  of  other  suitable  place  the  child  may  be  held  at 
the  police  station  pending  trial  as  heretofore  or  in  some  juvenile  institution  or  "other 
suitable  prison,  instead  of  the  Baltimore  City  jail." 5  Minnesota,  Oregon,  and  New 
Hampshire  make  provision  only  that  until  trial  the  child  may  be  retained  in  the  posses- 
sion of  the  person  having  charge  of  the  same  or  may  "be  kept  in  some  suitable  place 
provided  by  the  city  or  county.*  In  the  great  majority  of  cases  the  child  who  is 
awaiting  trial  may  be  allowed  to  remain  in  his  home  under  the  care  of  his  parents  or 
guardians,  but  in  some  cases  conditions  are  such  as  to  render  this  impossible.  The 
child  must  then  be  held  by  the  state,  but  under  such  conditions  that  his  reformation 
shall  begin  at  once  if  possible.  For  this  reason  the  place  of  detention  is  made  a  "  home  " 
or  "school"  instead  of  a  jail.  In  California,7  Illinois,8  Kansas,"  Kentucky,10  Michigan,11 

I  Calif.  Penal  Code  1906  Appendix  p.  630  sec.  17. 
Ind.  L.  1907  ch.  203  sec.  i. 

III.  R.  S.  St.  1908  ch.  23  sec.  179. 

Iowa  L.  1904  ch.  1 1  sec.  1 1.     (If  under  17  years  of  age). 

Mo.  L.  1905  p.  60  sec.  1 6. 

Mich.  L.  1907  No.  325  sec.  8. 

Miss.  L.  1907  p.  133,  573,  9  (If  under  16). 

Nebr.  Compiled  Statutes  1909  sec.  2796  sec.  1 1. 

N.  H.  L.  1907  ch.  126  sec.  15  (If  under  17). 

N.  Y.  Penal  Code  1908,  No.  291  Subd.  6  (If  under  16). 

B.  C.  &  G's  Consol.  St.  1909  p.  763,  sec.  92. 
Ore.  L.  1907  ch.  34  sec.  12. 
Pa.  L.  1903  No.  205  sec.  7  Age  (not  specified). 

R.I.  L.  1899  ch.  664  No.  4.  (Age  not  specified — Juvenile  shall  not  be  trans- 
ported or  confined  with  non-Juvenile.) 

Wise.  Sup.  to  St.  of  1898  Sec.  573  subdiv.  9. 
*  Ala.  Local  Acts  1907  p.  363  sees.  6  and  7. 

3  Ga.  L.  1908  p.  1 107. 

4  N.  J.  L.  1903  ch.  219  sec.  i. 

L.  1906  ch.  27  sec.  4. 

5  Md.  L.  1904  ch.  521  sec.  i. 

8  Minn.  L.  1907  ch.  285  sec.  5. 
Ore.  L.  1907  ch.  34  sec.  5. 
N.  H.  L.  1907  ch.  125  sec.  5. 

7  Calif.  Penal  Code  1906  Appendix  p.  630,  sec.  16. 

8  III.  L.  1907  p.  59  Nos.  1-17  (If  25  per  cent,  of  the  voters  petition  for  the  es- 
tablishment of  a  detention  home  it  must  be  submitted  to  the  voters  and  if  a  majority 
of  those  voting  on  the  proposition  vote  for  it,  it  must  be  established.     L.  1907  p.  56 
sec.  6. 

B  Kans.  L.  1907  ch.  177  sec.  7  (Provides  for  detention  homes  in  counties  having 
a  population  of  200,000 — juvenile  farms  in  those  having  25,000). 

10  Ken.  L.  1908  ch.  67  sec.  4.  (In  cities  of  first  and  second  class  except  those 
where  the  Board  of  Children's  Guardians  have  already  provided  one,  detention 
homes  shall  be  established.) 

II  Mich.  L.  1907  No.  326  sec.  3 — (County  Board  shall  establish). 

258 


TOPICAL   ABSTRACT  OF  JUVENILE   COURT   LAWS 

Minnesota,1  Missouri,2  Nebraska,3  New  Jersey,4  Ohio,5  Oregon,8  Pennsylvania,7  Tennes- 
see,8 Utah,8  and  Washington,10  the  law  requires  or  authorizes  the  county  commis- 
sioners to  establish  such  "  schools, "  "  homes, "  or  "  rooms  "  which  shall  not  be  connected 
with  the  jail,  shall  be  in  charge  of  a  superintendent  and  matron  "and  shall  combine  as 
far  as  possible  the  function  of  home  and  school."  The  court  may  commit  any  child 
needing  treatment  to  a  hospital  in  Illinois11  and  Kentucky.12 

VII.     FINAL  DISPOSITION  OF  THE  CHILD 

In  the  disposition  of  the  child  after  trial,  most  of  the  states  authorize  the  court 
to  continue  the  hearing  from  time  to  time,  leaving  the  child,  under  the  supervision  of  a 
probation  officer,  in  its  home  or  in  some  suitable  family  or  to  commit  it  to  some  de- 
tention school  or  House  of  Reform  or  to  any  institution  willing  to  receive  it  and  having 
for  its  object  the  care  of  delinquent  children.13  In  Connecticut,14  the  District  of  Co- 

1  Minn.  L.  1907  ch.  172  sec.  i — (County  Board  may  with  approval  of  the  Judge 
establish). 

2  Mo.  L.  IQOQ  p.  428  sec.  12. — (Duty  of  the  county  court  to  provide  such  a 
place). 

3  Nebr.  Compiled  Statutes  1909  Sec.  2796,  22. 

4  N.  J.  L.  1906  ch.  37  sec.  i  (County  Board  may  establish). 

6  Ohio.  L.  1908  p.  199  sec.  30  (County  Commissioners  may  upon  advice  of  the 
Judge  establish). 

*  Ore.  L.  1907  ch.  34  sec.  7  (In  counties  of  more  than  100,000). 

7  Pa.  Purdon's  Digest  p.  1880  No.  47.     In  cities  of  first  and  second  class. 

8  Tenn.  L.  1907  ch.  no  sec.  i. 

L.  1905  ch.  516  sec.  5.     (County  Court  shall  provide.) 

'  Utah  L.  1907  ch.  144  sees.  1-7  (Counties  having  cities  of  first  and  second  class 
may  establish). 

10  Wash.  L.  1905  ch.  18  sec.  1 1.     (Must  provide  suitable  and  separate  rooms.) 

11  ///.  Revised  Statutes  1908  ch.  23  sec.  177. 

12  Ken.  L.  1908  ch.  67  sec.  8. 

13  Ala.  Local  Acts,  1907  p.  363  sec.  9. 

Calif.  Penal  Code  1906  Appendix  630^  sec.  15  and  630^  sec.  16. 
Colo.  L.  1903  ch.  85  sec.  9. 

Ga.  L.  1908  p.  1 107  (If  offense  is  not  punishable  by  death  or  life  imprisonment). 
///.  R.  S.  1908  ch.  23  sec.  178. 
Ind.  L.  1907  ch.  203  sec.  i. 
Iowa.  L.  1904  ch.  1 1  sec.  i. 
Kans.  L.  1905  ch.  190  sees.  6  and  9. 
Ken.  L.  1908  ch.  67  sec.  7. 
La.  L.  1908  No.  83  sec.  17. 
Mass.  L.  1906  ch.  413  sees.  5  and  8. 
Md.  L.  1905  p.  60  sec.  1 6. 

Mich.  L.  1907  No.  325  sees.  5  and  6.     (Most  of  the  above  provisions.) 
Minn.  L.  1905  ch.  285  sec.  5. 
Mo.  L.  1909  p.  429  sec.  17. 
Nebr.  Compiled  St.  1909  sec.  2796,  9. 
N.  H.  L.  1907  ch.  125  sec.  15. 
Ohio.  L.  1908  p.  194  sec.  12. 
Ore.  L.  1907  ch.  34  sec.  10. 
Penn.  Purdon's  Digest,  p.  1882  sec.  56. 
Tenn.  L.  1905  ch.  516  sec.  8. 
Texas.  General  Laws,  1907  ch.  65  sec.  7. 
Utah.  L.  1907  ch.  139  sees.  4  and  5. 
IVasb.  L.  1905  ch.  18  sec.  8. 

Wise.  Sup.  to  Wise.  St.  of  1898  sec.  573,  6.     Subdiv.  i — (Hearing  may  be  con- 
tinued only  until  child  is  16). 

14  Conn.  L.  1905  ch.  142  sec.  4. 

259 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 

lumbia,1  Indiana,2  and  Massachusetts,3  the  law  allows  the  court  to  fine  or  imprison  the 
child  for  the  original  offense  or  for  violating  the  conditions  of  its  parole.  In  Georgia,4 
Maryland,5  New  Jersey,4  and  New  York,7  the  adoption  of  the  more  modern  as  well  as 
the  more  humane  method  of  handling  delinquent  children  is  left  to  the  judge  by  pro- 
viding that  the  sentence  may  be  imposed  or  suspended  and  the  child  placed  on  pro- 
bation or  parole,  while  Illinois,8  Massachusetts,*  Ohio,10  Oregon,11  and  Texas,13  states 
which  have  adopted  most  advanced  legislation,  leave  a  loophole  for  a  return  to  the 
old  system  by  providing  that  the  judge  may  order  the  child  to  be  proceeded  against 
and  sentenced  under  the  existing  criminal  laws  of  the  state." 


VIII.     PROBATION  OFFICERS 

A.     APPOINTMENT 

The  laws  of  the  various  states  providing  for  the  appointment  of  probation 
officers  are  quite  uniform.  The  chief  officer  is  appointed  by  the  court  in  all  the  states 
with  the  following  exceptions — California14  by  the  Probation  Commission;  Rhode 
Island15  by  the  State  Board  of  Charities;  Utah,18  by  the  Juvenile  Court  Commission; 
in  Rochester,  N.  Y.,17  by  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety;  Illinois,18  Missouri,19  and 

1  D.  C.  34  U.  S.  Statutes  at  Large  73  sees.  17  and  20.     (Fines  and   penalties 

may  be  imposed.) 

a  Ind.  L.  1907  ch.  203  sec.  7.     (For  petit  larceny  and  malicious  trespass.) 

1  Mass.  L.  1906  ch.  413  sec.  9.      (Fine  of  $5  for  violation  of  the  conditions  of 

its  probation.     If  not  paid  child  may  be  sent  to  jail.) 

4  Ga.  L.  1908  p.  1107. 

5  Md.  L.  1904  ch.  514,  "at  any  stage  of  the  proceedings  in  the  case  of  a  minor 
who  is  charged  with  crime,"  the  magistrate  may  suspend  further  action  and  place  the 
minor  in  the  care  of  a  probation  officer  on  such  terms  as  he  deems  proper. 

e  N.  J.  L.  1908  ch.  219  sec.  7.  (Child  may  be  committed  to  care  of  probation 
officer,  to  a  school  or  institution  or  may  be  fined  or  imprisoned  or  both.) 

I  N.  Y.  L.  1902  ch.  590  sec.  5.     (New  York  City.) 

L.  1906  ch.  317  (Rochester). 

(Court  may  "impose  or  suspend  sentence  or  remit  to  probation.") 
B.  C.  &  G's.  Consol.  Laws  1909  p.  3832  sec.  486  subdiv.  5,  8,  and  9. 
8  ///.  R.  S.  1908  ch.  23,  sec.  175. 
*  Mass.  L.  1906  ch.  413,  sec.  1 1.     (If  child  is  over  14.) 
10  Ohio.  L.  1908  p.  202,  sec.  39.  (When  charged  with  felony.) 

II  Oregon.  L.  1907  ch.  34,  sec.  10.     (When  the  child  shall  "be  found  by  the 
court  to  be  incorrigible  and  incapable  of  reformation  or  dangerous  to  the  welfare  of  the 
community"   to  show  "great  depravity  of  mind"  or  be  an  "habitual  criminal"  it 
shall  then  be  subject  to  judgment  therefor,  in  the  same  manner  as  if  he  had  been  over 
the  age  of  18  years.") 

12  Texas.  General  L.,  1907  ch.  65,  sec.  9. 

13  While  Georgia's  juvenile  legislation  does  not  belong  to  the  same  class  as  the 
states  just  named,  it  contains  a  provision  on  this  point,  that  a  child  over  10  may  be 
committed  to  take  his  trial  according  to  law,  L.  1908,  p.  1 107. 

14  Calif.  Penal  Code,  1906  p.  629.     (The  Probation  Commission  is  composed  of 
six  men  or  women  appointed  by  the  Court.     Ibid.,  627,  No.  6.) 

15  R.  I.  L.  1906  ch.  1360,  sec.  i. 

16  Utah  L.  1907  ch.  139,  sec.  9.    Judge  makes  recommendation  to  the  Commis- 
sion. 

17  N.  Y.  1906  ch.  317.     Additional  ones  without  pay  may  be  appointed  by  the 
police  judge. 

18  Ills.  R.  S.,  1908  ch.  23,  sec.  174.     This  applies  only  to  counties  having  popu- 
lation of  over  500,000.     Court  appoints  in  counties  less  than  500,000  population. 

19  L.  1909  p.  428,  sec.  1 3. 

260 


TOPICAL  ABSTRACT  OF  JUVENILE   COURT   LAWS 

Wisconsin  :  provide  that  the  appointment  of  all  probation  officers  must  be  made  from 
an  eligible  list  determined  by  competitive  civil  service  examination;  and  in  Michigan 2 
the  County  Agent  of  the  State  Board  of  Charities  and  Corrections,  who  is  appointed  by 
the  Governor,  acts  as  Chief  Probation  Officer  and  subordinates  are  appointed  by  the 
court.  Subordinate  or  deputy  probation  officers  are  appointed  by  the  court  in  all  the 
states  except  Illinois,  Missouri,  and  Wisconsin,  where  the  entire  service  is  on  a  civil 
service  basis,3  and  Rhode  Island,4  where  they  are  appointed  by  the  Chief  Probation 
Officers. 


B.     NUMBER  AND  SALARY 

The  number  and  salary  of  the  probation  officers  in  the  various  states  differ  with 
the  regard  in  which  the  whole  Juvenile  Court  movement  is  held  by  the  state  and  with 
its  wealth  and  population.  Not  all  these  differences  are  important,  but  some  of  them 
are  rather  significant. 

In  Michigan,5  New  York,9  Pennsylvania,7  Texas  8  and  Tennessee  8  the  probation 
officers  are  not  paid,  at  least  not  from  the  public  funds. 

In  California,10  Idaho,11  Indiana,12  Kansas,13  Missouri,14  Nebraska,15  Ohio,18  and 
Washington  "  the  maximum  compensation  is  fixed  by  law. 

In  Kentucky  the  law  provides  that  the  fiscal  court  may  levy  a  tax  not  to  ex- 
ceed one  fourth  of  a  cent  on  f  100  worth  of  property  to  meet  the  expense  of  the  court 
and  its  officers.18 

In  Illinois  18  and  Missouri20  the  number  of  officers  is  determined  by  the  court — 
the  salary  in  the  former  being  fixed  by  the  County  Board,  in  the  latter  by  statute. 


1  Wis.  L.  1907  p.    128,   No.    573.      Examination    is  conducted   by   the  Civil 
Service  Commission,  p.  139,  sec.  7.     Officers  may  be  removed  for  incompetence  or 
wilful  neglect. 

2  Mich.  L.  1907  No.  325,  sec.  4. 

3  Ills.,  Mo.  and  Win.,  supra. 

4  R.  I.  L.  1906  ch.  1360,  No.  i. 

5  Mich.  L.  1907  No.  326,  Sec.  4.     The  County  Agent  who  acts  as  Chief  Proba- 
tion Officer  receives  a  per  diem,  the  other  officers  nothing. 

'Sec.  iiaof  the  Code  of  Criminal  Procedure  provides  for  the  appointment 
of  probation  officers  by  courts  having  jurisdiction  of  criminal  affairs.  There  is  no 
general  probation  laws  for  juvenile  delinquents  and  in  most  cities  the  officers  are  paid 
by  some  private  organization  interested  in  the  prevention  of  delinquency  among 
children. 

7  Pa.  Purdon's  Digest,  1882  Sec.  53. 

8  Texas,  Gen'l  L.,  1907  Ch.  65. 

9  Tenn.  L.  1905  Ch.  516,  Sec.  7. 

10  Calif.  Penal  Code,  1906  p.  628,  Sec.  10. 

1  Idaho.  L.  1907  p.  63,  Sec.  2. 

2  Ind.  L.  1903  ch.  237,  Sec.  2. 

3  Kans.  L.  1907  p.  177,  Sec.  13. 

4  Mo.  L.  1907  p.  427,  Sec.  1 1. 

5  Nebr.  Compiled  Statutes,  1909  Sec.  27966. 
8  Ohio.  L.  1906  p.  197,  Sec.  22. 

17  Wasl.  L.  1907  ch.  1 10.     (In  cities  of  first  class.     Unpaid  in  others.) 

18  Ken.  L.  1908  ch.  67,  Sec.  21.     This  applies  to  cities  of  first  and  second 
classes.     Expenses  have  so  far  been  met  without  levying  a  special  tax. 

18  Ills.  R.  S.  1908  ch.  23,  Sec.  174. 
20  Mo.  L.  1909  p.  428,  Sees.  9,  10,  1 1. 

18  26l 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND   THE   HOME 

In  Colorado,1  Massachusetts,2  and  Wisconsin s  the  number  is  fixed  by  the  Court 
and  the  County  Board;   in  Alabama  4  by  law. 


C.    DUTIES 

The  duties  of  the  probation  officers,  the  law  provides  in  almost  all  of  the  states 
having  Juvenile  Court  Laws,  shall  be  (a)  to  investigate  any  child  to  be  brought  before 
the  Court,  (V)  to  be  present  in  court  to  represent  the  interests  of  the  child,  (c)  to  fur- 
nish such  information  as  the  judge  may  require,  and  (d)  to  take  charge  of  any  child 
before  and  after  trial.5  Utah,  with  the  longest  list  of  duties,  adds  to  those  given  above 
that  the  officers  must  make  complaint  before  the  court  of  any  case  of  delinquency 
coming  to  their  knowledge,  serve  notices,  and  file  complaints  against  parents  contribut- 
ing to  the  dependency  or  delinquency  of  their  children.8  In  Massachusetts,  New 
Hampshire,  New  Jersey,  New  York,  and  Rhode  Island,  where  the  probation  system 
antedates  the  Juvenile  Court,  the  placing  of  children  on  parole  or  probation  comes 
under  the  regulations  for  offenders 7  generally. 

Congress  has  allowed  the  Judge  to  define  the  duties  of  probation  officers  in  the 
District  of  Columbia.8 


1  Colo.  L.  1903  ch.  85,  Sec.  8. 

2  Mass.  R.  S.  ch.  217,  Sec.  81. 

3  Wise.  L.  1907  p.  128,  Sec.  573.     (From  two  to  five.) 

4  Ala.  Local  Acts,  1907  p.  303,  Sec.  8.     (There  is  only  one.) 
6  These  provisions  are  found  in  the  following  states. 

Ala.  Local  Acts,  p.  363,  Sec.  8. 

Calif.  Penal  Code,  1908  Appendix,  p.  630,  Sec.  14. 

Colo.  L.  1903  ch.  85,  Sec.  8. 

Conn.  L.  1905  ch.  142,  Sec.  2.     (Does  not  provide  for  attendance  at  court.) 

Idaho.  L.  1907  p.  231,  Sec.  2 — L.  1905  p.  oo,  Sec.  12. 

Ills.  R.  S.  1908  ch.  23,  Sec.  174. 

Ind.  L.  1907  ch.  203  Sec.  5  and  6.     (Must  also  visit  child  twice  a  year.) 

Iowa.  L.  1904  ch.  1 1,  Sec.  6. 

Kans.  L.  1905  ch.  190,  Sec.  3. 

Ken.  L.  1908  ch.  67,  Sec.  3. 

La.  L.  1908  No.  83,  Sec.  1 1  and  13  (a  b  and  d  above). 

Md.  L.  1904  ch.  514,  Sec.  i  (except  b). 

Mich.  L.  1907  No.  325,  Sec.  5  and  1 1  (a  and  d  only) 

Minn.  L.  1905  ch.  285,  Sec.  6  and  ch.  321,  Sec.  2. 

L.  1907  ch.  342,  Sec.  2. 
Mo.  L.  1909  p.  427,  Sec.  9. 
Nebr.  Compiled  Statutes,  1909  Sec.  2796,  6. 
Ohio.  L.  1908  p.  198,  Sec.  23. 
Oregon.  L.  1907  ch.  34,  Sec.  6. 
Pa.  Purdon's  Digest,  p.  1882  Sec.  53  (b  not  given). 
Tenn.  L.  1905  ch.  516,  Sec.  7. 
Texas,  Gen'l  Laws,  1907  ch.  65,  Sec.  6. 
Wash.  L.  1905  ch.  18,  Sec.  6. 
Wise.  L.  1907  p.  130,  Sec.  573. 
6  Utab.  L.  1907  ch.  139,  Sec.  1 1. 
1  Mass.  R.  S.  ch.  217,  Sec.  34,  35,  and  36. 
N.  H.  L.  1907  ch.  125,  Sec.  8. 
A/.  /.  L.  1906  ch.  74,  Sec.  3. 

N.  Y.  Code  of  Criminal  Procedure,  1908  Sec.  i  \a,  2. 
/?.  /.  L.  1889  ch.  664,  Sec.  3  and  7. 
8  D.  C.  34  U.  S.  Statutes  at  Large  43,  Sec.  4. 

262 


TOPICAL  ABSTRACT  OF  JUVENILE   COURT   LAWS 


IX.    CONSTRUCTION  OF  JUVENILE  COURT  LAWS 

Those  states  which  have  the  more  complete  Juvenile  Court  laws  add  to  the 
careful  provisions  for  the  trial  and  disposition  of  delinquent  children  which  are  made 
in  order  that  they  may  be  reformed  and  not  punished,  that  the  law  shall  be  liberally 
construed  for  the  protection  of  the  child.1 


X.    ADULT  RESPONSIBILITY  FOR  JUVENILE  DELINQUENCY 

Of  all  laws  calculated  to  prevent  delinquency  among  children,  those  that  punish 
by  fine  or  imprisonment  the  parents  or  other  persons  who  contribute  to  such  delin- 
quency are  the  most  significant.2 


1  Calif.  Penal  Code  Appendix,  1906  p.  630^,  Sec.  20. 

Colo.  L.  1903  ch.  86,  Sec.  1 1. 

Ills.  R.  S.  1908  ch.  23,  Sec.  189. 

Ind.  L.  1903  ch.  237,  Sec.  10. 

Iowa  L.  1904  ch.  1 1,  Sec.  16. 

Kans.  L.  1906  ch.  190,  Sec.  15. 

Ken,  L.  1908  ch.  67,  Sec.  18. 

Mass,  L.  1906  ch.  413,  Sec.  2. 

Minn.  L.  1905  ch.  285,  Sec.  14. 

Mo.  L.  1909  p.  431,  Sec.  23. 

Nebr.  Compiled  Statutes,  1909  Sec.  2796,  17. 

N.  H.  L.  1907  ch.  125,  Sec.  19. 

Ohio  L.  1908  p.  202,  Sec.  40. 

Oregon  L.  1907  ch.  34,  Sec.  18. 

Texas  Gen'l  L.  1907  ch.  65,  Sec.  10. 

Utah.  L.  1907  ch.  139,  Sec.  17. 

Wash.  L.  1905  ch.  18,  Sec.  12. 

1  The  following  states  have  adopted  legislation  of  this  sort. 

Colo.  L.  1903  ch.  94,  Sec.  i.  L.  1907  ch.  155.  (Allows $ i ooo fine  or  12  months' 
imprisonment  or  both  for  causing  delinquency.) 

Conn.  L.  1907  ch.  69,  Sec.  i.     (1500  fine  or  6  months'  imprisonment  or  both.) 

D.  C.  34  U.  S.  Statutes  at  Large  73,  Sec.  26.  ($200  fine  or  3  months'  imprison- 
ment or  both.) 

Idaho  L.  1907  No.  63,  Sec.  i.     ($500  or  6  months'  imprisonment  or  both.) 

Ills.  R.  S.  1906  p.  717,  Sec.  42  h  b.  ($200  fine  or  12  months'  imprisonment  or 
both.) 

Ind.  L.  1905  ch.  145,  Nos.  2  and  3.  (Fine  $500  or  6  months'  imprisonment  or 
both.) 

Kans.  L.  1907^.  177,  No.  i.     ($1000  fine  or  one  year  imprisonment  or  both.) 

Ken.  L.  1905  ch.  60,  Sees.  I  and  2. 

Mass.  L.  1906  ch.  413,  Sec.  13.  ($50  fine;  6  months' imprisonment  or  both; 
made  a  misdemeanor.) 

Minn.  L.  1907  ch.  92,  Sec.  i.     (1500  fine;   6  months'  imprisonment  or  both.) 

(The  Minnesota  law  is  sweepingly  drawn.  It  provides  that  any  person  who 
"by  an  act  of  omission  or  commission  or  by  word,  shall  have  encouraged,  caused  or 
contributed  to.  . .  .the  delinquency,  dependency  or  neglect  of  such  child.") 

Mo.  L.  1907  p.  231,  Sec.  i. 

Nebr.  Compiled  Statutes,  1909  Sec.  2796.  20.  ($500  fine  or  6  months'  imprison- 
ment or  both.) 

N.  J.  L.  1905  ch.  160,  Sec.  i.     ($1000  fine  or  6  months'  imprisonment  or  both. 

263 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 

Colorado,1  and  Kentucky  2  provide  that  this  proceeding  against  the  parent  or 
responsible  adult  shall  be  on  the  "verified  petition  of  a  reputable  resident  '  and  he  shall 
be  brought  into  court  by  a  summons  instead  of  by  warrant  as  the  other  s  ates  provide. 
In  most  states  when  a  person  is  convicted  of  causing  or  contributing  to  the  delinquency 
of  a  child,  the  judgment  may  be  suspended  and  the  parent  placed  on  probation  to 
remove  former  conditions  or  causes,  and  upon  his  failing  to  do  this,  judgment  may  be 
entered.8 


XI.     RELATION  OF  COURT  TO  INSTITUTIONS  IN  WHICH  CHILDREN  ARE 

PLACED 

After  a  child  has  been  brought  into  court,  and  it  has  been  found  necessary  or 
advisable  by  the  court  to  place  him  in  some  institution,  the  states  differ  as  to  whether 
or  not  he  then  passes  out  of  the  control  of  the  court.  In  the  District  of  Columbia,4 


Applies  only  to  parents  who  fail  to  use  "due  diligence"  to  prevent  misconduct  of 
child.) 

L.  1907  ch.  585,  makes  failure  to  keep  children  in  school  or  not  notifying 
authorities  of  inability  to  do  so  a  misdemeanor. 

N.  Y.  Penal  Code  1908  Sec.  289,  Subdivision  3.  (A  misdemeanor  and  punish- 
able accordingly.) 

Ohio.  L.  1908  p.  192,  Sec.  23.     ($1000  fine,  12  months'  imprisonment  or  both.) 

Texas.  L.  1907  ch.  109,  Sec.  i.  ($1000  fine,  12  months'  imprisonment  or 
both.) 

Utah.  L.  1907  ch.  155,  Sec.  i.  (A  stringent  provision — "any  person  over  18 
years  of  age  who  by  any  acts,  words  or  conduct,  or  by  the  omission  to  do  something 
required  by  law  to  be  done,  aids,  abets,  encourages,  contributes  to,  or  becomes  re- 
sponsible for  the  dependency,  neglect,  or  delinquency  of  any  juvenile" — shall  be 
deemed  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor.) 

Wash.  L.  1907  ch.  1 1,  Sec.  i.     (|iooo  fine  or  i  year  imprisonment  or  both.) 

Wise.  L.  1905  ch.  1444,  Sec.  i.     (1500  fine  or  i  year  imprisonment  or  both.) 

1  Colo.  L.  1909. 

2  Ken.  L.  1908  ch.  60,  Sees,  i  and  2. 

3  This  is  the  case  in 

Conn.  L.  1907  ch.  69,  Sec.  i. 

Colo.  L.  1903  ch.  94,  Sec.  i. 

D.  C.  34,  Statutes  at  Large,  73,  Sec.  24. 

Idaho.  L.  1907  p.  231,  Sec.  i. 

Ills.  R.  S.  1908  p.  717,  Sec.  42  h  b 

Ind.  L.  1905  ch.  145.  Sec.  3.  (Judgment  not  to  be  suspended  longer  than  2 
years.) 

Ken.  L.  1908  ch.  67,  Sec.  3.     (May  be  released  on  probation  for  one  year.) 

Kans.  L.  1907  ch.  177,  Sees.  3  and  4. 

Minn.  L.  1907  ch.  92,  Sec.  i. 

Mo.  L.  1907  p.  231,  Sec.  i. 

Nebr.  Compiled  Statutes,  1909  Sec.  2796,  20.     (Same  as  in  Ind.) 

N.  J.  L.  1905  ch.  160,  Sec.  2.  (Fine  of  not  more  than  $100  or  by  imprison- 
ment for  not  more  than  six  months.) 

;  Ohio.  L.  1908  p.  195,  Sec.  14.  (Fine  not  less  than  $10  nor  more  than  $1000 — 
imprisonment  10  days  or  i  year.  Every  day's  contribution  to  be  considered  a  separate 
offense.) 

Texas.  Gen'l  L.  1907  ch.  109,  Sec.  i. 

Utah.  L.  1907  ch.  155,  Sees.  3  and  4. 

Wash.  L.  1907  ch.  1 1,  No.  i. 

Wise.  L.  1905  ch.  444,  No.  i.     (Same  as  in  Ind.  and  Nebr.) 

4  D.  C.  34  Statutes  at  Large  43,  Sec.  8. 

264 


TOPICAL   ABSTRACT  OF  JUVENILE   COURT   LAWS    ' 

Kansas,1  Kentucky,1  Minnesota,3  and  Missouri,4  the  law  specifically  provides  that  he 
may  be  discharged  by  order  of  the  court  only.  In  Ohio*  he  may  be-discharged  only 
by  the  authorities  of  the  institution  to  which  he  has  been  committed  and  in  Oregon  6 
the  court  may  change  its  orders  only  with  the  consent  of  the  institution.  The  control 
or  supervision  of  institutions  or  associations  which  receive  children  from  the  Juvenile 
Court  is  exercised  by  the  State  Board  of  Charities  in  Colorado,7  Illinois,8  Indiana,9 
Louisiana,10  Massachusetts,11  Minnesota,12  Missouri,13  Nebraska14  and  Ohio.15  In  Ken- 
tucky,18 Tennessee,17  and  Oregon,18  this  supervision  is  in  the  hands  of  a  board  appointed 
by  the  Juvenile  Court.  In  Maryland  19  probation  officers  are  selected  by  the  supreme 
bench  to  visit  institutions  and  report  on  them  to  the  court.  In  Idaho 20  they  must  be 
passed  on  by  the  Governor.  In  Texas,21  Colorado,22  and  Louisiana,23  the  court  may  re- 
quire the  institutions  to  make  complete  report  as  to  the  care,  condition,  and  progress  of 
the  child.  The  Illinois  law  provides  that  the  child  may  continue  to  be  a  ward  of  the 
Court  after  it  has  been  placed  in  charge  of  any  association  or  individual.24  In  Illinois,28 
Nebraska,2*  and  Ohio,27  agents  of  the  Juvenile  reformatories  must  do  probation  work, 
reporting  to  the  court  conditions  of  the  homes  in  which  children  have  been  placed. 
In  Massachusetts,28  Nebraska,2'  and  Idaho30  the  school  authorities  are  required  to  make 
reports,  when  requested  by  the  judge,  of  children  under  the  care  of  the  court. 


1  Kans.  L.  1905  ch.  190,  Sec.  10. 

2  Ken.  L.  1908  ch.  67,  Sec.  7. 

3  Minn.  L.  1905  ch.  285,  Sec.  7. 

4  Mo.  L.  1909  p.  430,  Sec.  8. 

5  Ohio  L.  1904  p.  621,  Sec.  9.     (Cuyahoga  County  Court.) 

L.  1908  p.  192,  Sec.  12. 

6  Oregon  L.  1907  ch.  34,  Sec.  10. 

7  Colo.  L.  1903  ch.  85,  Sec.  10. 

8  Ills.  R.  S.  1908  ch.  23,  Sec.  181. 

9  Ind.  L.  1905  ch.  237,  Sec.  8.     (Court  may  require  report  on   an  institution 
from  the  Board  at  any  time.) 

10  La.  L.  1906  No.  83,  Sec.  18. 

11  Mass.  L.  1906  ch.  413,  Sec.  8. 

12  Minn.  L.  1905  ch.  285,  Sec.  n. 

13  Mo.  L.  1909  p.  430,  Sec.  9. 

14  Nebr.  Compiled  Statutes,  1909  Sec.  2796,  13. 

15  Ohio  L.  1908  p.  192,  Sec.  13. 
18  Ken.  L.  1908  ch.  67,  No.  19. 

17  Tenn.  L.  1905  ch.  516,  No.  9. 

18  Oregon  L.  1907  ch.  43,  No.  15. 

19  Md.  L.  1902  ch.  6 1 1,  Sec.  886  B. 

L.  1904  ch.  614. 

20  Idaho  L.  705,  p.  1 06,  Sec.  7. 

21  Texas  L.  1907  ch.  65,  Sec.  8. 

22  Colo.  L.  1903  ch.  85,  Sec.  10. 

23  La.  L.  1908  No.  83,  Sec.  18. 

24  Ills.  R.  S.  1908  ch.  23,  Sec.  177. 

25  Ills.  R.  S.  1908  ch.  23,  Sec.  180. 

28  Nebr.  Compiled  Statutes,  1909  Sec.  2796,   12. 

27  Ohio  L.  1908  p.  192,  Sec.  13. 

28  Mass.  L.  1906  ch.  489,  Sec.  8.     (Boston.) 

29  Nebr.  Compiled  Statutes,  1909  Sec.  2796,  13. 

30  Idaho  L.   1907  No.  63,  Sec.  3.      (Truancy,  delinquency,  and  incorrigibility 
reported  by  school  authorities  to  court.) 

265 


THE    DELINQUENT   CHILD    AND   THE    HOME 

CONCLUSION 

Juvenile  Court  legislation  is  still  in  the  making.  Yearly  additions  and  modi- 
fications will  make  this  abstract  incomplete  almost  with  its  appearance.1  To  anyone 
who  has  studied  the  session  laws  of  the  past  ten  years  it  is  evident  that  the  tendency 
is  to  follow  the  leadership  of  Illinois  and  Colorado  and  enact  legislation  which  con- 
sistently regards  the  child  who  has  committed  some  offense  as  one  who  needs  the 
especial  guidance  and  protection  of  the  state.  Probably  no  juvenile  court  has  done 
for  this  class  of  children  in  its  community  all  that  it  is  hoped  will  be  possible,  but  public 
opinion  is  unanimous  in  its  verdict  that  the  theory  which  these  courts  are  attempting 
to  put  into  practice  is  a  great  advance  over  the  common  law  doctrine  and  everything 
points  to  the  ultimate  abandonment  of  this  older  doctrine  by  all  of  the  states. 

Hull  House,  1910. 


1  Since  the  above  was  written  juvenile  court  laws  have  been  enacted  in  Arkansas 
(Acts  1911,  p.  166),  Delaware  (Laws  1911,  ch.  262),  Florida  (Laws  1911,  p.  181,  ch. 
6216),  Idaho  (Laws  1911,  ch.  159,  Art.  XVII)  and  North  Dakota  (Laws  1911,  p.  266, 
ch.  177).  Laws  already  enacted  have  been  amended  in  important  respects  in  Illinois 
(Laws  1911,  p.  126),  Kansas  (Laws  1911,  p.  411,  ch.  236),  Kentucky  (Acts  1910,  p. 
226,  ch.  76),  Michigan  (Laws  1911,  p.  448),  Missouri  (Laws  1911,  p.  177),  Nebraska 
(Acts  1911,  p.  207,  p.  272),  South  Dakota  (Laws  1909,  p.  421),  Tennessee  (Public 
Acts  1911,  p.  in;  Private  Acts  191 1,  p.  1569),  Utah  (Laws  1909,  p.  324?  191 1,  p.  81), 
Virginia  (Acts  1908,  p.  619),  Washington  (Laws  1909,  ch.  190;  1911,  ch.  56),  Wis- 
consin (Laws  1909,  §573  fol.). 


266 


APPENDIX  IV 

FAMILY    PARAGRAPHS    RELATING   TO   THE    DELIN- 
QUENCY OF  100  BOYS 

BROUGHT  INTO  THE  JUVENILE  COURT  OF  COOK  COUNTY  AT  CHICAGO, 
ILLINOIS,  BETWEEN  JULY  i,  1903,  AND  JULY  i,  1904 

IN  the  following  pages  are  presented  a  series  of  short  paragraphs, 
each  giving  a  briefly  summarized  statement  of  all  the  facts  that 
were  gathered  relating  to  the  home  and  family  as  well  as  to  the 
alleged  offenses  of  100  of  the  584  boys  for  whom  family  schedules 
were  obtained.  The  paragraphs  selected  are  those  which  represent 
as  wide  a  variety  of  cases  as  possible  and  within  the  various  groups 
those  in  which  the  facts  collected  were  most  complete  and  inter- 
esting. It  is  believed  that  a  study  of  these  simple  statements  of 
fact  will  help  the  reader  to  see  the  delinquent  child,  as  a  human 
problem  and  not  merely  as  an  abstract  question  of  social  policy.  The 
fact  that  these  are  grouped  under  different  headings  does  not  mean 
that  we  directly  relate  the  child's  delinquency  to  any  one  factor  as 
a  single  cause.  It  is  felt,  however,  that  in  presenting  so  large  a 
number  of  cases,  the  reading  of  them  will  be  facilitated  and  also 
rendered  more  illuminating  if  the  histories  which  seem  to  have 
certain  features  in  common  are  grouped  together.  The  number 
presented  is  believed  to  be  sufficiently  large  to  enable  the  reader  to 
test  the  conclusions  that  we  have  drawn  in  these  chapters  and  to 
find  the  truth,  if  he  wishes,  quite  independently  of  the  writers' 
interpretation. 

I.     IMMIGRANT  PARENTS  WHO  HAVE  NOT  LEARNED  ENGLISH 

i.  A  thrifty  Italian  family  with  fourteen  children,  seven  of  whom 
are  dead.  The  mother  was  fifteen  years  old  and  the  father  thirty-three 
when  they  were  married,  and  they  immigrated  two  years  later.  They 
came  directly  to  Chicago  where  they  have  lived  for  twenty  years.  They 
speak  a  little  English  but  do  not  read  or  write  it.  The  father  now  owns 
a  little  grocery  store  and  they  live  in  a  comfortable  six-room  flat  in  a 
building  that  they  own.  The  boy  receives  $3.00  a  week,  working  for 
his  father,  and  is  permitted  to  keep  his  own  money.  When  he  was  twelve 

267 


THE    DELINQUENT   CHILD   AND   THE    HOME 

years  old,  he  was  brought  into  court  as  a  truant  and  was  sent  to  the 
Chicago  Parental  School  for  ten  months.  He  refused  to  attend  school 
because  he  did  not  like  the  teacher.  One  year  later  he  was  arrested  for 
stealing  and  was  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School  for  six  months.  The 
probation  officer  says,  "Four  members  of  this  family  have  passed  through 
a  routine  of  truancy,  incorrigibility  in  school,  suspension,  stealing  from 
the  father,  and  then  they  have  become  clerks  in  their  father's  grocery 
and  settled  down."  The  parents  say  the  probation  officer  was  a  good 
man  because  he  scared  the  boy  into  being  good.  The  officer  says  he 
has  not  noticed  any  great  improvement  in  the  boy's  character,  but  what 
there  is,  is  due  to  the  boy's  independence  in  having  his  own  money. 

2.  A  thrifty,  industrious  Polish  family  with  fifteen  children,  eight 
of  whom  are  still  at  home, — the  youngest  two  years  old.     When  they 
were  married,  the  father  was  twenty  and  the  mother  twenty-four.    They 
immigrated  three  years  later.    The  father  is  a  common  laborer,  but  has 
a  steady  job  in  a  big  manufacturing  plant.    The  home  of  six  rooms  is 
neat  and  pleasant.    The  mother,  who  has  been  in  this  country  seventeen 
years,  can  speak  no  English.    She  did  not  think  it  was  necessary  for  the 
boy  to  go  to  school  and  "kept  him  out"  a  great  deal;  otherwise  the  home 
influence  was  good.    The  probation  officer  thinks  the  boy's  delinquency 
was  due  to  his  parents'  ignorance  of  American  customs.     When  the 
mother  understood  that  in  America  it  was  wrong  to  let  the  boy  pick  coal 
from  the  tracks,  she  kept  him  away.    At  the  age  of  eleven,  he  was  brought 
into  court,  charged  with  stealing  coal  from  the  railroad  and  taking  it 
away  in  bags;    he  was  put  on  probation.    The  probation  officer  visited 
the  home  twice  a  month  usually,  and  sometimes  oftener.    She  advised 
the  mother  to  keep  the  boy  in  school  as  long  as  possible;    she  visited 
the  teacher  to  arouse  her  interest  in  the  boy;    and  took  the  boy  to  the 
circus  and  picnics.    The  mother  speaks  of  the  officer  as  "a  nice  lady" 
whom  she  was  always  glad  to  see.    The  boy  is  working  for  a  brewery, 
bottling  beer,  and  earns  $6.00  a  week.    For  a  year  and  a  half  he  was  a 
laborer  in  a  foundry  where  he  earned  $4.50  a  week. 

3.  A  Bohemian  family  with  nine  children;    one  is  married;    one 
is  a  servant;  this  boy  is  in  the  John  Worthy  School;  and  the  remaining  six 
are  still  at  home.    Before  immigration  the  father  was  a  blacksmith,  and 
the  mother  worked  on  a  farm.    When  he  was  twenty-five  and  she  twenty- 
three  they  married  and  came  to  Chicago.    Although  they  have  been  here 
twenty-five  years,  the  father  speaks  little  English  and  can  neither  read 
nor  write  it.     The  father  still  practices  his  trade  of  a  blacksmith  but 
does  not  earn  very  good  wages.    They  have  a  very  comfortable  home  of 
four  rooms,  which  they  own  free  of  mortgage.    They  also  have  a  vege- 
table  garden   and   chickenyard.     The   mother   is   very   easy-going  and 
says  she  thinks  the  father  has  injured  the  boy's  mind  by  giving  him  so 
many  hard  slaps  on  the  head.     The  father  is  very  quick-tempered  and 
severe.    When  the  boy  was  twelve  years  old  he  was  brought  into  court 
as  a  truant;    and  sent  to  the  Chicago  Parental  School.    One  year  later 
he  stole  a  bicycle  valued  at  $15;  and  was  put  on  probation.    Two  months 
later  he  stole  an  alarm  clock  and  lead  pipe  from  an  empty  house;    and 
was  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School.    The  probation  officer  says  the 

268 


FAMILY  PARAGRAPHS  RELATING  TO  BOYS 

boy  is  very  spasmodic  in  all  his  habits;  he  would  not  report  regularly, 
but  she  saw  him  two  or  three  times  a  month.  He  is  mischievous  and 
easily  led,  went  with  bad  boys  and  got  into  trouble.  She  thinks  him  sub- 
normal. 

4.  A  poor,  helpless  Russian-Jewish  family  with  seven  children, 
three  of  whom  died  in  infancy.    The  father  was  twenty-five  years  old  and 
the  mother  twenty  when  they  were  married;   the  father  had  been  in  this 
country  seven  years  and  the  mother  had  just  immigrated.    They  speak 
very  little  English.     They  live  in  a  very  poor,  four-room  apartment. 
The  father,  who  is  a  tailor,  is  now  out  of  work  but  he  does  not  earn  more 
than  $6.00  a  week  when  he  works  and  has  never  been  able  to  support 
the  family,  who  are  now  receiving  some  charitable  assistance.    This  boy 
has  tuberculosis.    He  worked  in  Colorado  last  winter  and  should  be  there 
now,  but  the  mother  does  not  know  how  to  get  along  without  his  help 
because  he  is  the  only  one  of  the  children  old  enough  to  work.    She  used 
to  go  out  cleaning,  but  for  the  last  few  years  she  has  not  been  able  to  go 
away  from  home  to  work  because  the  four-year-old  child  is  feeble  minded 
and  has  convulsions.    When  this  boy  was  thirteen  he  was  brought  into 
court,  charged  with  being  the  leader  of  three  boys  who  were  committing 
petty  thefts;    he  was  put  on  probation.    When  he  was  fourteen  he  was 
brought  in  again  for  resisting  an  officer;    he  was  riding  on  the  fender 
of  a  car  and,  when  the  officer  ordered  him  off,  the  boy  became  abusive 
and  used  insulting  language;    he  was  again  put  on  probation.     He  has 
been  under  the  care  of  two  different  probation  officers.     The  mother 
says  that  the  officers  were  "a  great  help." 

5.  A  Lithuanian  family  with  eight  children.    The  parents  married 
when  the  father  was  twenty  and  the  mother  seventeen.    The  father,  who 
is  a  laborer,  immigrated  fourteen  years  ago.    The  mother,  who  died  re- 
cently, had  been  in  this  country  only  six  years  and  could  speak  no  English. 
The  family  have  a  poor,  dirty  home  in  a  very  poor  neighborhood.    The 
little  ten-year-old  girl  is  the  only  housekeeper,  but  the  father  gets  the 
meals  for  the  family.     During  the  father's  illness  the  family  received 
county  aid.    The  boy  started  to  school  at  thirteen,  after  he  had  been  here 
two  years,  and  stopped  at  fourteen,  in  the  second  grade.    The  father  says 
the  boy  is  very  bad  and  was  incorrigible  even  in  Europe.    At  the  age  of 
fourteen  he  was  brought  into  court  on  the  charge  of  stealing  potatoes 
from  a  freight  car  and  was  put  on  probation.    He  has  worked  very  irreg- 
ularly and  ran  away  from  home  after  his  mother's  death. 

6.  A  Bohemian  family  with  six  children;  two  boys  are  married;  two 
are  in  the  John  Worthy  School;   and  two  are  still  at  home.    The  parents 
are  decent  and  industrious  people,  who  came  to  this  country  when  they 
were  both  thirty-four,  and  have  never  learned  to  speak  English.     The 
mother  has  always  continued  to  wear  the  old  peasant  costume,  and  the 
home,  a  very  poor  two-room  apartment,  looks  very  foreign.    The  father 
is  a  teamster;    the  mother  took  in  washing  at  first  but  has  given  it  up 
now.     This  boy  was  the  first  one  in  the  family  to  go  to  school,  and  he 
did  not  like  it.    At  the  age  of  twelve  he  was  brought  into  court  on  the 
charge  of  incorrigibility  because  he  would  not  go  to  school,  stayed  away 

269 


THE    DELINQUENT   CHILD    AND   THE    HOME 

from  home,  slept  out  nights,  and  associated  with  bad  boys;  he  was 
committed  to  the  John  Worthy  School.  At  the  age  of  fifteen  he  was 
brought  in  again,  charged  with  having  stolen  goods  in  his  possession, — 
he  was  found  with  chewing-gum  worth  $1.50  for  which  he  could  not 
account;  he  was  paroled  to  a  workingboys'  home.  He  seemed  as  un- 
willing to  go  to  work  as  he  had  been  to  go  to  school,  and  he  is  now  in  the 
John  Worthy  School  again. 

7.  A   Polish   immigrant   family  with   eleven   children,   three   of 
whom  died.     The  parents  married  when  the  father  was  twenty-eight 
and  the  mother  eighteen,  and  immigrated  seven  years  later.     Neither 
father  nor  mother  speaks  English.     The  family  live  in  a  poor,  crowded 
home  of  four  rooms.    The  father  is  a  common  laborer  in  one  of  the  plants 
of  a  well  known  company;  two  of  the  daughters  earn  small  wages  "work- 
ing out."    When  this  boy  was  fifteen  and  in  the  second  grade  at  school, 
he  was  brought  into  court,  charged  with  stealing  grain  doors  from  rail- 
road cars.     "Bad  company"  was  the  reason,  the  mother  said.     He  was 
committed  to  the  John  Worthy  School  for  nine  months.    On  his  release  he 
was  paroled  to  a  police  officer.    The  officer  called  at  the  home  once  a 
month,  and  the  boy  reported  to  him  every  two  weeks.     He  worked  in 
the  steel  mills  for  a  time,  but  is  now  in  the  navy. 

8.  This  boy  is  one  of  four  children  belonging  to  an  Italian  family, 
who  came  from  Italy  only  eight  years  ago.    The  mother  of  these  children 
died  in  Italy,  but  the  father,  who  is  a  paper  peddler  earning  from  $3.00 
to  $4.00  a  week,  remarried  before  he  came  to  this  country.    Neither  the 
father  nor  the  stepmother  can  speak  English.  The  family  lived  with  a  cousin 
after  they  first  came  here  but  they  now  have  a  home  of  their  own,  a 
very  poor,  four-room  apartment.    When  this  boy  was  ten  years  old,  he 
was  brought  to  court  for  begging,  and  was  sent  to  an  institution  for 
dependent  children.    He  had  been  allowed  to  peddle  papers  when  a  very 
little  boy  and  undoubtedly  was  encouraged  by  his  stepmother  to  beg. 
At  the  age  of  eleven  he  was  brought  into  court  for  fighting  with  other 
boys.    He  was  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School  for  fifteen  months.    Two 
years  later  he  was  arrested  for  loafing  about  the  docks  and  was  put  on 
probation.     The  boy  is  now  running  an  elevator  and  earning  $6.00  a 
week,  part  of  which  he  gives  to  his  father.    He  has  had  several  positions 
of  only  a  month's  duration.    He  has  been  under  the  care  of  three  different 
probation  officers.    The  officer  who  knew  him  best  says  that  his  progress 
has  been  remarkable,  considering  his  home  surroundings. 

*  School  Statement. — I  am  77  years  old.     I  left  school  when  I  was 

*It  was  explained  in  Chapter  VIII  (see  page  126)  that  when  the  investi- 
gators were  visiting  the  homes  of  these  boys  in  order  to  obtain  the  family  schedules, 
an  attempt  was  made  in  every  instance,  when  the  boy  himself  was  found  at  home, 
to  have  him  fill  out  a  "school  statement."  This  statement  asked  for  his  age  at 
beginning  school  together  with  his  age  and  grade  at  leaving  school,  the  schools 
attended,  and  the  studies  which  had  helped  him  most  to  earn  money.  These  state- 
ments are  attached  to  the  family  paragraphs  because  the  information  they  contain 
does,  in  some  cases,  throw  light  upon  the  boy's  conduct.  The  names  of  the  schools 
are  omitted  in  order  to  avoid  possible  identification.  In  Appendix  VI  one  of 
these  statements  is  reproduced  in  the  boy's  own  handwriting. 

270 


FAMILY  PARAGRAPHS  RELATING  TO  BOYS 

14.    I  was  then  in  the  4  grade.    I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was 

years  old.    The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are 
I  went  to  school  to  learn  everything  I  could  about because 

9.  A  Bohemian  family  with  seven  children.     The  parents  were 
married  when  the  father  was  twenty-four  and  the  mother  twenty-three; 
they  immigrated  four  years  later  but  neither  of  them  has  learned  to  speak 
English,  although  they  have  been  here  twenty-one  years.    They  have  a 
poor  home  in  a  basement  apartment.    The  father  is  a  teamster  earning 
$9.00  a  week,  and  two  daughters  work  in  a  tailor  shop.    At  the  age  of 
twelve  this  boy  was  brought  into  court  charged  with  arson  and  stealing; 
he  and  three  other  boys  broke  down  a  fence  and  set  fire  to  it;   they  were 
also  charged  with  stealing  coal  and  jumping  on  moving  trains;    he  was 
put  on  probation.    At  the  age  of  sixteen  he  was  brought  in  again  charged 
with  stealing;    he  broke  the  seal  of  a  freight  car  and  stole  30  bushels 
of  corn  valued  at  $i  5 ;  he  was  again  put  on  probation.    The  boy  improved 
under  probation  and  has  worked  well,  although  he  has  recently  been  in 
court  again  for  stealing;  he  has  worked  in  a  tin  shop,  and  for  a  picture 
company,  and  recently  nine  months  in  a  stove  factory,  earning  $6.00  a 
week.    He  "gives  in"  his  wages. 

School  Statement. — I  am  16^2  years  old.  I  left  school  when  I  was  14. 
I  was  then  in  the  6  grade.  I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was  6  years 
old.  The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are  manu- 
traing  because — [Boy  unable  to  write  enough  to  complete  the  statement.] 

10.  A  German  family  with  three  children.    The  father  was  twenty- 
eight  and  the  mother  twenty-seven  when  they  were  married,  and  they 
immigrated  three  years  later.    The  father  is  a  laborer  and  rather  intemper- 
ate.   The  mother  was  a  paralytic,  for  years  hardly  able  to  drag  herself 
about.    She  could  speak  no  English  and,  being  unable  to  see  why  the  boy 
should  go  to  school  every  day,  was  inclined  to  keep  him  at  home  to  help 
her.    The  boy  had  an  unusual  opportunity  for  loafing  on  the  street  and 

got  in  with  the  "P Street  gang."    The  mother  died  not  long  ago,  and 

the  boy  is  now  living  with  one  married  sister,  and  the  father  with  another. 
The  boy  is  bright,  a  good  worker,  and  is  never  out  of  work.    When  he  was 
thirteen  he  was  brought  into  court  charged  with  malicious  mischief.    He 
was  accused  of  entering  a  car  and  ringing  up  a  fare  on  the  register.    He 
was  put  on  probation.    The  probation  officer  to  whom  he  was  paroled 
did  a  great  deal  for  the  boy.     He  reported  to  her  every  week,  and  she 
visited  the  home  twice  a  month,  but  the  mother  did  not  fully  under- 
stand why  she  came. 


II.  LOSS  OF  PARENTAL  CARE  THROUGH  THE  DEATH  OF  FATHER 

OR  MOTHER 

n.  This  boy  was  an  only  child  of  American  parents.  The  father 
is  dead,  and  the  mother,  who  was  once  a  school  teacher,  owns  some  prop- 
erty in  the  country  and  the  building  in  which  they  live;  she  rents  the 
store  in  front  and  all  the  rest  of  the  building,  except  three  dark  rear 
rooms.  She  has  an  ungovernable  temper,  at  times  verging  on  insanity. 

271 


THE    DELINQUENT   CHILD   AND   THE    HOME 

The  neighbors  and  the  probation  officer  think  that  at  times  she  is  not 
in  her  right  mind.  She  recently  put  some  tenants  out  and  one  of  them 
had  her  arrested  for  disorderly  conduct.  She  threw  eggs  in  court  at  the 
judge  who  fined  her,  and  she  is  now  in  jail  serving  a  thirty  days'  sentence 
for  contempt.  The  boy  was  found  at  home  alone  with  a  dog.  He 
was  cooking  his  supper.  He  is  fond  of  his  mother  and  wanted  to  go  to 
jail  for  her,  or  with  her,  but  the  judge  would  not  allow  it.  At  the  age  of 
thirteen  this  boy  was  brought  into  court,  charged  with  malicious  mischief. 
He  was  accused  of  throwing  stones  and  breaking  windows.  He  was 
put  on  probation  under  the  care  of  a  police  officer  who  was  always  friendly 
with  him.  The  officer  went  to  see  the  boy  often  but  the  mother  did  not 
like  any  interference  with  her  authority.  The  officer  says  the  boy 
is  a  good  boy  now.  The  boy  has  had  several  different  kinds  of  jobs,  and 
when  working  has  always  given  his  mother  his  money.  He  was  inspector 
in  a  large  department  store  for  awhile,  and  agent  for  a  candy  store,  and 
errand  boy  at  another  department  store,  but  is  out  of  work  now.  He  and 
his  mother  are  going  to  the  country  when  she  comes  out  of  jail. 

School  Statement. — I  am  ij  years  old.  I  left  school  when  I  was  16. 
I  was  then  in  the  7  grade.  I  began  to  go  to  school  when  1  was  4  years  old. 
The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are  Reading  and 
Writing  and  Armithict  because  you  can  tell  where  you  are  and  can  be  in 
touch  with  your  people. 

12.  A  Polish  family  with  six  children.     The  father  was  twenty- 
six  and  the  mother  was  sixteen  when  they  were  married  and  they  immi- 
grated two  years  later.    Neither  of  them  ever  learned  to  speak  English. 
The  father  is  now  dead  and  the  mother  insane.    When  the  father  died 
nine  years  ago  he  left  $900  insurance,  which  the  mother  spent  in  one  year. 
Two  boys  work  in  the  stockyards  now  and  support  the  other  children. 
The  sister  keeps  the  house  of  four  rooms  clean  and  takes  care  of  the 
three  younger  children.    When  this  boy  was  twelve  he  broke  the  seal  on 
a  freight  car  and  stole  some  grain  for  the  chickens.    He  was  sent  to  the 
John  Worthy  School  for  two  years,  and  after  his  release  was  under  the 
care  of  a  probation  officer  who  called  at  the  home  once  a  month  at  first 
and  then  less  frequently.    She  was  always  friendly  and  tried  to  help  the 
sister  with  the  children.    The  sister  says  she  was  always  glad  to  see  the 
officer.    The  boy  is  now  working  irregularly  in  the  stockyards. 

School  Statement. — I  am  18  years  old.  I  left  school  when  I  was  14. 
I  was  in  the  4  grade.  I  began  to  go  to  school  when  1  was  7  years  old.  The 
studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are  riding  and  writing 
because  that  will  get  me  a  job. 

13.  This  boy  is  an  illegitimate  child  of  Irish-American  parents. 
The  mother  is  dead,  and  the  father  has  never  recognized  him  nor  con- 
tributed to  his  support.    The  boy  lived  with  his  great-grandmother  until 
he  was  five  years  old  when  she  died,  and  an  aunt  with  eight  children 
took  him  to  live  with  her.     She  lives  in  a  very  bad  neighborhood;    her 
home  is  bare  and  dirty;    and  her  husband  a  man  "wellknown   to  the 
police."    The  boy  is  said  to  have  a  mania  for  stealing;  he  was  brought  into 
court  at  the  age  of  ten  with  eight  other  boys  for  breaking  open  a  show 

272 


FAMILY    PARAGRAPHS    RELATING   TO    BOYS 

case  and  stealing  five  watches  valued  at  $3.75  each;  he  was  put  on 
probation.  Seven  months  later  he  was  again  brought  in  for  stealing,  and 
sent  to  an  institution  for  dependent  boys.  The  aunt  says  he  was  put  on  a 
farm  when  released  and  she  does  not  know  where  he  is. 

14.  This  boy's  mother  died  in   Bohemia,  and  the  father,  then 
twenty-eight,  brought  the  boy  with  him  to  this  country.     The  father 
has  been  here  seventeen  years,  but  can  speak  no  English.    The  boy  and 
the  father  are  very  good  friends.    They  live  in  two  rooms,  and  the  boy 
has  always  stayed  at  home  and  "kept  house"  for  the  father.    He  was  left 
alone  all  day  long  with  nothing  to  do.    When  he  was  fifteen  he  was  brought 
into  court  for  stealing  $4.50.     He  was  put  on  probation.     One  month 
later  he  was  arrested  for  trying  to  steal  at  a  large  department  store  and 
was  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School  for  ten  months.     He  is  staying 
with  his  father  and  keeping  house  at  present;    he  has  no  other  work. 
The  boy  was  paroled  to  a  police  officer  and  then  to  a  probation  officer. 
The  father  thinks  that  the  last  officer  had  a  good  influence  over  the 
boy.    The  boy  reported  to  the  officer  once  a  month.    Although  the  boy  is 
now  twenty  years  old,  he  has  worked  only  three  months  altogether, 
except,  of  course,  at  "housekeeping." 

School  Statement. — I  am  20  years  old.     I  left  school  when  I  was 
14.     I  was  then  in  the  6  grade.     I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was  6 

years  old.    The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are 

because — .     /  worked  in  printing  shop  where  I  learned  how  to  feed  a  goodro. 

15.  An  American  family  with  two  children.     The  mother  died 
of  tuberculosis  and  the  grandmother  keeps  house.     They  have  a  very 
poor  home  of  three  rooms  in  a  poor  and  crowded  neighborhood  with  no 
park  nor  playground  near.    The  father,  who  is  a  waiter,  earns  very  low 
wages  and  drinks  a  great  deal.     The  grandmother  is  good  to  the  two 
children  but  not  very  capable  of  taking  care  of  them.    The  probation 
officer  thinks  she  is  mentally  unbalanced.    The  boy  used  to  work  as  a 
newsboy  and  an  errand  boy  after  school  hours  and  always  gave  his  earn- 
ings to  his  grandmother.    At  the  age  of  eleven  he  was  brought  into  court 
on  a  charge  of  incorrigibility  because  he  ran  away  from  school  and  slept 
under  sidewalks;    he  was  put  on  probation.    He  was  brought  into  court 
again  charged  with  truancy,  and  was  again  put  on  probation.    At  the  age 
of  fourteen  he  was  brought  into  court  again,  charged  with  stealing  a  bicycle 
valued  at  $7.00;  he  was  once  more  put  on  probation.    The  boy  was  under 
the  care  of  a  volunteer  probation  officer,  whom  the  grandmother  calls 
"a  good,  kind  woman";  but  when  the  boy's  little  sister  had  been  seriously 
burned,  the  grandmother  was  very  resentful  because  the  officer  insisted 
that  she  should  have  medical  treatment.     Since  then  the  grandmother 
has  not  wanted  an  officer  to  visit  the  home. 

School  Statement. — I  am  75  years  old.  I  left  school  when  I  was  14. 
I  was  then  in  the  5  grade.  I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was  7  years 
old.  The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are  Reading 
because  /  use  it  in  my  trade  and  that  is  the  sign  painting  trade. 

16.  A  German  family  with  four  children,  all  of  whom  are  at  home 
except  this  boy,  who  is  in  the  John  Worthy  School.    The  mother  died 

273 


THE   DELINQUENT   CHILD   AND   THE   HOME 

a  good  many  years  ago.  The  housekeeper,  who  was  changed  often,  could 
not  make  the  boys  mind.  The  father  is  a  baker,  but  does  not  earn  very 
good  wages;  he  has  been  immoral  and  a  drunkard,  although  he  is  now 
improving.  The  home  is  always  poor  and  neglected,  and  the  children 
are  uncared  for.  The  older  brothers  do  very  unskilled  work;  a  boy  of 
twenty-two  earns  only  $5.00  a  week.  The  little  sister  is  very  backward 
in  school  and  this  boy  was  not  bright  nor  fond  of  school.  At  the  age  of 
eleven  he  was  brought  into  court  for  stealing  a  horse  from  a  barn  and 
also  for  taking  a  hammer;  he  was  put  on  probation.  Within  a  year  he 
was  brought  in  again  charged  with  stealing;  he,  with  a  crowd  of  boys, 
took  a  blanket  and  shawl  from  a  buggy;  he  was  committed  to  the  John 
Worthy  School.  At  the  age  of  thirteen  he  was  in  court,  charged  with 
disorderly  conduct;  he  annoyed  his  teacher,  used  indecent  language 
on  the  street,  and  stole;  he  was  again  put  on  probation.  At  the  age  of 
fourteen  he  was  brought  in  on  the  charge  of  breaking  into  a  house  and 
stealing  two  coats  valued  at  $12,  and  tools  valued  at  $6.00;  he  was  again 
committed  to  the  John  Worthy  School,  where  he  is  now.  He  has  worked 
in  several  different  places,  and  always  turned  in  his  money.  The  pro- 
bation officer  called  on  the  boy  twice  a  month  when  he  was  at  home.  The 
officer  thinks  that  the  boy  is  weak  willed  and  that  the  discipline  of  the 
institution  has  been  good  for  him.  "The  separation  from  home  influences 
seems  to  have  caused  an  improvement." 

17.  A  Russian  family  with  six  children.     The  parents  are  both 
dead,  but  the  children  live  with  the  stepmother,  who  speaks  very  little 
English.     They  have  a  wretched  home,  a  five-room  cottage,  damp  and 
dirty,  in  a  very  poor  neighborhood  near  the  city  limits,  surrounded 
by  swamp  and  standing  water.    The  stepmother  keeps  a  boarder  or  two. 
The  father  was  ill  for  a  long  time  and  could  earn  very  little;   he  then  be- 
came insane,  was  sent  to  the  hospital,  and  died  there.     This  boy  had 
no  home  care  nor  attention.    At  the  age  of  nine  he  was  brought  into 
court  charged  with  stealing;    he  had  broken  into  a  house,  with  another 
boy,  and  stolen  $14  and  two  rings  valued  at  $15;   the  officer  thought  the 
boy  gave  the  money  to  his  parents.     He  was  put  on  probation.    At  the 
age  of  ten  he  was  again  brought  into  court,  charged  with  truancy,  and 
was  sent  to  the  Chicago  Parental  School,  where  he  is  now.    The  step- 
mother knows  nothing  about  him.     The  boy's  older  sister  is  at  home, 
as  are  two  small  children,  the  boy's  half-brother  and  sister. 

1 8.  An  Irish-American  family  with  three  children.     The  parents 
were  both  born  in  America  and  were  married  when  the  father  was  twenty- 
four  and  the  mother  twenty-two.    The  father  died  insane.    The  mother 
was  a  janitress  but  is  now  working  in   a   drygoods  store.     After  the 
father  died,  the  family  went  to  live  with  the  grandfather.    The  grandfather 
is  now  dead,  but  he  left  the  home,  which  he  owned,  to  them.  The  sister  is 
a  telephone  operator,  and  the  boy  keeps  house  while  the  mother  and 
sister  work.    When  the  boy  was  twelve  he  was  brought  into  court  for 
grabbing  a  pocketbook,  and  was  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School  for  two 
months.    At  the  age  of  fifteen  he  was  brought  into  court  again  for  attempt- 
ing to  stab  a  boy  during  a  neighborhood  race  war  and  he  was  put  on  pro- 
bation.   He  had  three  or  four  positions  in  the  stockyards  but  did  not  keep 

274 


FAMILY  PARAGRAPHS  RELATING  TO  BOYS 

any  of  them  more  than  two  months.  He  keeps  house  now  instead  of 
going  to  work.  He  has  been  under  the  care  of  two  different  probation 
officers.  The  last  officer,  who  visits  the  home  once  a  month,  says  she  has 
had  no  trouble  dealing  with  the  child. 

School  Statement. — I  am  16  years  old.  I  left  school  when  I  was 
14.  I  was  then  in  the  6  grade.  I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was  5 
years  old.  The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are 
reading  writeing  numbers  because  /  had  to  do  that  to  get  the  work  as  mail 
messenger. 

19.  A  Russian-Jewish  family  with  seven  children.     The  parents 
have  not  immigrated,  and  this  boy's  only  relatives  in  America  are  two 
brothers.     He  has  lived  with  a  married  brother,  who  has  no  sympathy 
with  him  and  who  says  the  boy  is  a  degenerate,  that  he  was  the  youngest 
and  was  always  petted  and  spoiled,  and  that  he  robbed  his  father  in 
Europe.    At  the  age  of  fourteen  the  boy  was  brought  into  court  as  incor- 
rigible, charged  with  not  attending  school,  with  keeping  bad  company, 
staying  away  from  home,  and  being  hard  to  control;   he  was  put  on  pro- 
bation.    At  the  age  of  fifteen  he  was  brought  in  again,  charged  with 
stealing;  he  was  committed  to  the  John  Worthy  School.    He  was  paroled 
to  a  home  for  workingboys,  but  the  officer  in  charge  of  it  says  the  boy 
spent  most  of  his  time  "bumming."    Several  positions  were  found  for 
him,  but  he  never  kept  any  of  them  very  long.    The  boy  was  taken  ill, 
and  the  officer  took  him  to  a  hospital.    After  his  recovery  the  boy  went 
away,  and  the  officer  did  not  see  him  again.    He  is  now  in  the  state 
reformatory  at  Pontiac. 

20.  A  Polish  family  with  fifteen  children,  eight  of  whom  are  dead. 
The  father  and  mother  were  both  twenty-eight  when  they  were  married,  and 
they  probably  immigrated  the  same  year.    The  mother,  who  was  the  fath- 
er's second  wife,  is  dead,  and  the  present  stepmother  is  therefore  the  third 
wife.    The  father  is  a  retired  harness-maker.    The  home,  which  they  own, 
is  neat,  clean,  and  well  furnished,  and  they  have  a  yard  with  grass  and 
flowers.    They  rent  the  upper  floor  of  the  house.    The  father  said  the  boy 
became  so  unmanageable  that  it  was  necessary  to  take  him  to  court  when 
he  was  fifteen  years  old  and  have  him  sent  to  a  reform  school.    The  father 
said  in  court  that  the  boy  was  incorrigible,  he  refused  to  work  and  could 
not  be  controlled;   he  was  committed  to  the  John  Worthy  School.    When 
released,  he  was  put  under  the  care  of  a  probation  officer,  who  says  she 
could  reason  with  the  boy  and  he  did  very  well  under  her  care.    She  visited 
the  home  twice  a  month.    She  says  the  boy  wrote  beautifully  and  had  a 
talent  for  drawing,  but  the  parents  did  not  encourage  him.    The  parents 
liked  the  officer.    They  said  the  boy  did  well  as  long  as  she  visited  him. 
When  she  stopped,  "he  quit  his  job."      He  worked  in  a  picture-frame 
factory  and  went  to  school  nights;   then,  one  day,  he  drew  two  weeks' 
pay  and  left  home.    The  father  does  not  know  where  he  is,  but  hopes  that 
he  will  come  back.    An  older  brother  ran  away  and  never  returned. 

21.  This  boy  was  the  only  child  of  English-Irish  parents,  both  of 
whom  came  to  this  country  when  very  young,  and  both  of  whom  died  of 
tuberculosis.    The  father  died  when  the  boy  was  small,  and  the  mother 

275 


died  the  year  after  the  boy  was  first  brought  into  court.  He  then  went 
to  live  with  his  mother's  sister,  who  had  a  comfortable  home  but  whose 
husband  had  been  twice  arrested  for  larceny  and  had  a  bad  influence  over 
the  boy.  The  boy  was  first  brought  into  court  when  thirteen  years  old 
as  a  truant,  and  was  sent  to  the  Chicago  Parental  School.  He  was  brought 
in  again  three  years  later  and  was  paroled  to  a  home  for  workingboys, 
but  he  ran  away  after  one  month.  He  was  immediately  returned  to  court 
charged  with  being  one  of  three  boys  who  held  up  a  woman  and  robbed  a 
man.  He  was  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School  for  five  months.  The 
probation  officer  says  the  boy  is  fairly  steady,  but  smokes  a  great  deal 
and  she  thinks  he  inherited  a  weak  will  and  a  tendency  to  steal.  He  left 
Chicago  three  months  before  the  investigator's  visit  and  his  aunt  has 
not  heard  from  him,  but  believes  him  to  be  on  a  farm.  She  thinks  the 
boy  has  tuberculosis.  He  was  a  wagon  boy  at  one  time  and  was  allowed 
to  keep  his  own  wages. 


III.    WORKING  MOTHERS 

22.  A  Polish  family  with  six  children,  one  of  whom  is  now  married. 
The  parents  were  both  twenty  years  old  when  they  were  married  and 
immigrated  ten  years  later.    The  father,  who  was  a  tailor  by  trade,  died 
insane  ten  years  ago.    The  mother,  who  can  speak  no  English,  took  in 
washing  and  had  a  hard  struggle  for  years  to  care  for  the  family.    She 
kept  the  house  clean  but  was  not  able  to  look  after  the  children  properly. 
When  this  boy  was  thirteen  and  in  the  fourth  grade  at  school,  he  was 
brought  into  court  for  cutting  telephone  wires  under  the  sidewalks  and 
carrying  away  the  wires  to  sell.    He  was  put  on  probation  and  was  never 
brought  into  court  again.     He  was  paroled  to  a  police  officer,  who  says 
the  boy  reported  to  him  and  never  gave  him  any  further  trouble.     He 
worked  for  nearly  three  years  in  a  furniture  factory,  for  five  months  in  a 
spring  factory,  and  he  is  now  in  a  department  store. 

School  Statement. — I  am  18  years  old.  I  left  school  when  I  was 
13  years  7  months.  I  was  in  the  jth  grade.  I  began  to  go  to  school 
when  I  was  6  years  old.  The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn 
money  are  Reading  and  Arithmetic.  Because  reading  helps  me  find  work 
by  reading  in  papers  and  arithmatic  helps  me  count  my  hours  I  put  in  and 
count  my  celary. 

23.  An  American  family  with  ten  children,  not  however  all  belong- 
ing to  the  mother;   three  are  her  sister's  and  three  her  stepchildren.    The 
father  was  thirty-five  and  the  mother  twenty-four  when  they  were  mar- 
ried.   The  father  died  of  tuberculosis,  and  during  his  long  illness,  as  well 
as  after  his  death,  the  mother  had  to  go  out  to  work,  and  there  was  no  one 
left  to  look  after  the  children.    The  mother  earns  from  $7.00  to  $10  a 
week,  cleaning.    The  home  is  very  poor  but  clean.    At  the  age  of  twelve 
this  boy  was  brought  into  court  by  his  mother  as  incorrigible,  because 
she  had  to  work  and  could  not  keep  him  off  the  streets.     He  had  been 
expelled  from  two  schools  and  had  run  away  from  an  institution  for 
dependent  boys.    He  was  returned  to  this  institution  and  then  sent  to  the 
John  Worthy  School  for  three  months.     When  he  was  thirteen  he  was 

276 


FAMILY  PARAGRAPHS  RELATING  TO  BOYS 

again  brought  in  as  incorrigible  and  was  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School 
again  for  a  year  and  nine  months;  he  was  then  transferred  to  the  institu- 
tion for  dependent  boys  and  in  three  months  was  recommitted  to  the  John 
Worthy  School.  The  boy  was  first  paroled  to  a  police  officer  and  later 
was  under  the  care  of  a  probation  officer  who  called  at  the  home  every 
two  weeks.  The  officer  thinks  the  mother  "did  all  in  her  power  to  make 
the  boy  do  right."  The  boy  is  anxious  to  be  released  from  probation,  but 
the  mother  thinks  it  is  very  good  for  him  to  be  under  an  officer's  care. 

24.  An  Irish  family  with  four  children,  of  whom  this  boy  is  the 
eldest.     The  mother  was  nineteen  when  she  came  to  this  country  and 
twenty  when  she  was  married.    The  father  died  when  the  children  were 
little,  and  the  mother  remarried.    The  stepfather  drank,  was  unkind  to 
the  children,  and  did  not  support  the  family  so  that  the  mother  has  always 
taken  in  washing  ever  since  the  father  died.    The  home  has  always  been 
poor  and  untidy.    One  of  the  children  was  an  epileptic  and  very  difficult 
to  take  care  of.    When  this  boy  was  twelve  years  old,  he  was  brought  into 
court  for  breaking  the  seal  on  a  freight  car  and  stealing  50  pounds  of 
mince  meat;    he  was  put  on  probation.    The  probation  officer  says  he 
belonged  to  a  bad  gang,  never  had  proper  home  care,  and  was  kept  out 
of  school  to  deliver  washing  for  his  mother.    He  has  never  been  in  court 
again.     He  has  worked  as  a  wagon  boy  in  a  department  store  for  five 
months,  as  errand  boy  for  six  months,  in  a  milk  depot  for  two  months, 
and  is  now  a  pin  boy  in  a  bowling-alley.    He  gives  all  his  wages  to  his 
mother. 

25.  An  Irish  family  of  seven  children,  five  of  whom  died  at  birth. 
Both  father  and  mother  were  twenty-four  years  old  when  they  came  to 
this  country.    The  father  is  dead  and  the  mother  is  a  cook  in  a  restaurant. 
The  mother  has  gone  out  to  work  for  thirteen  years  and  has  had  a  hard 
time  supporting  the  family  even  with  the  county  help  which  she  had  when 
the  children  were  small.    They  lived  in  a  very  poor  home  of  two  rooms  in 
a  very  poor  neighborhood.     This  boy  was  first  brought  into  court  at 
the  age  of  fifteen  by  his  mother,  because  he  would  not  work  and  because 
he  was  abusive  to  her  and  had  struck  her  several  times.    He  was  sent  to 
the  John  Worthy  School  for  eight  months.    When  he  was  seventeen  he 
was  brought  in  on  the  charge  of  disorderly  conduct  and  put  on  probation 
for  four  months,  but  was  finally  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School  for  the 
third  time.    The  boy  was  first  under  the  care  of  a  probation  officer  and 
was  later  paroled  to  a  volunteer  organization.    The  officers  of  the  organi- 
zation got  several  positions  for  the  boy,  but  he  had  a  strong  aversion  to 
any  kind  of  steady  work.     He  is  very  deaf,  however,  and  has  had  some 
trouble  holding  positions  on  that  account.    He  has  worked  very  irregularly 
and  has  had  a  variety  of  jobs.    He  was  in  a  machine-shop  for  six  months, 
in  a  harness-shop  for  three  months,  worked  for  a  long  time  on  a  farm,  and 
is  now  a  lumber  teamster.    The  boy's  younger  brother  is  also  a  ward  of 
the  court. 

School  Statement. — I  am  ig  years  old.    I  left  school  when  I  was  16, 
I  was  then  in  the  5  grade.    I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was  6  years  old. 
The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are  reading  and 
writing  because  /  can  read  and  find  where  I  want  to  go. 
19  277 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

26.  A  Polish  family  with  five  children,  of  whom  this  boy  is  the 
eldest.    The  father,  who  worked  in  the  fields  before  immigrating,  came  to 
this  country  at  the  age  of  thirty-nine,  and  the  following  year  married  a 
girl  of  fifteen,  who  had  just  come  over.    Neither  of  them  could  read  or 
write  English  but  both  could  speak  a  little.    The  father  was  killed  crossing 
the  tracks  when  the  children  were  small,  and  since  then  the  mother  has 
worked  as  a  scrubwoman.    The  family  of  six  and  the  two  lodgers  live  in 
three  rooms  on  the  fourth  floor  of  a  large  tenement.    The  mother  keeps 
the  house  clean,  but  the  roof  leaks  and  the  rooms  are  often  damp.    The 
mother  used  to  send  the  boys  to  get  coal  from  the  tracks  "because  every 
one  did."    When  twelve  years  old  this  boy  was  arrested  on  a  disorderly 
charge  for  stealing  coal  from  freight  cars  and  throwing  it  at  railroad  em- 
ployees.   He  was  sent  to  the  Chicago  Parental  School.    The  mother  told 
the  investigator  that  she  saw  other  boys  bringing  home  coal  from  the 
tracks  and  sent  her  boy  to  pick  some  up  too,  and  he  stole  it.    One  year 
later  he  was  charged  with  stealing  from  a  freight  car  goods  valued  at  $25; 
this  time  he  was  committed  to  the  John  Worthy  School  for  six  months.    A 
year  after  his  release  he  was  brought  in  on  a  disorderly  charge  for  throwing 
mud  at  store  windows  and  was  put  on  probation.    The  boy  is  not  strong 
and  is  probably  not  normal  mentally.    The  sister  says  he  "has  been  crazy 
six  times."    At  one  time  when  he  was  believed  to  be  temporarily  insane,  he 
was  confined  in  the  Detention  Hospital.     He  cannot  keep  any  position 
long.     The  probation  officer  says  the  boy  smokes  incessantly  and  she 
thinks  he  cannot  improve  because  his  mind  is  not  normal. 

School  Statement. — I  am  77  years  old.  I  left  school  when  I  was 
14  years  old.  1  was  then  in  the  5  grade.  I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I 
was  w  years  old.  The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money 
are  Reading  and  writting,  because  /  worked  in  the  printing  offices  as  errand 
boy. 

27.  This  boy  was  one  of  seven  children,  whose  father  was  German- 
American  and  whose  mother  was  Canadian.    The  father  was  thirty  and 
the  mother  sixteen  when  they  were  married.    The  father  was  a  railroad 
engineer  but  lost  his  position,  he  says,  because  his  eyesight  failed,  but  there 
is  evidence  also  of  intemperance.     He  has  been  working  nights  now  and 
keeping  house  during  the  day  while  the  mother  is  away  washing.    The 
children  have  been  much  neglected,  with  the  mother  away  all  day  and 
the  father  asleep  most  of  the  time.    The  home  is  very  poor  and  bare. 
When  the  boy  was  nine  years  old  he  was  brought  into  court  on  the  charge 
of  incorrigibility;  he  was  found  loitering  about  the  streets  and  his  parents 
said  they  could  not  control  him;  he  was  put  on  probation.     But  within 
a  year  he  was  brought  in  again  as  a  truant  and  charged  with  incorrigi- 
bility and  was  sent  to  the  Chicago  Parental  School.    The  parents  say  he 
improved  greatly  after  he  had  been  at  the  Parental  School.    He  has  been 
under  the  care  of  a  truant  officer  and  he  now  attends  school  regularly. 

School  Statement. — I  am  14  years  old.  I  left  school  when  I  was — . 
I  was  then  in  the  4  grade.  I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was  10  years 

old.    The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are .    / 

never  done  any  work. 

278 


FAMILY  PARAGRAPHS  RELATING  TO  BOYS 

28.  A  German  family  with  seventeen  children,  of  whom  twelve 
are  dead  and  two  married.    The  father  was  twenty-five  years  old  and  the 
mother  twenty  when  they  were  married,  and  they  came  to  this  country 
nine  years  later.    The  father  was  intemperate  and  finally  died  from  the 
effects  of  drink.    The  mother  goes  out  washing  but  she  can  scarcely  speak 
any  English  and  can  earn  only  about  $3.00  a  week.    She  has  always  had  a 
loafing  crowd  of  boarders  about  the  house  who  have  had  a  bad  influence  on 
the  children.    She  brought  this  boy  to  court  when  he  was  fourteen  and  in 
the  second  grade  at  school,  saying  that  he  was  sleeping  out  at  night  and 
that  he  would  not  work  or  go  to  school;  he  was  sent  to  the  John  Worthy 
School  for  nine  months.    The  boy  was  paroled  to  a  probation  officer,  who 
thinks  he  could  have  been  easily  controlled  had  there  been  more  affection 
at  home.    There  seems  to  have  always  been  a  lack  of  sympathy  between 
the  mother  and  the  boy,  but  the  mother  is  very  anxious  for  his  wages. 
The  boy  worked  for  a  year  in  a  piano  factory  and  then  spent  three  years 
learning  the  printing  trade.     He  is  now  working  in  a  printing  shop. 

29.  A   Norwegian   family   with   four   children.     The   mother   is 
American  born.     The  ages  of  the  parents  at  marriage  were  eighteen 
and  seventeen.     After   the  father's  death,   the  mother  did  scrubbing 
and  worked  very  hard  indeed.      The   mother  remarried  when  thirty- 
two.     The  stepfather  is  a  mechanic  in  a  tinshop,  earning  about  $18 
a  week,  and  they  now  have  a  more  comfortable  home  of  four  rooms. 
When  this  boy  was  fourteen  he  was  brought  into  court  for  stealing  30 
pounds  of  sausage.     He  was  found  to  be  a  truant  and  was  sent  to  the 
Chicago  Parental  School.     When  he  was  sixteen  he  was  charged  with 
stealing  china  worth  $3.75;   he  was  put  on  probation,  and  finally  sent  to 
a  state  school  for  delinquent  boys.    The  boy  was  first  paroled  to  a  police 
officer,  and  then  to  a  probation  officer.    The  first  officer  never  found  the 
mother  home  when  he  called.    The  last  officer  called  "just  once,"  but  the 
mother  resented  her  coming  and  the  officer  could  get  no  help  from  the 
home.    The  boy  reported  once  a  month.    One  summer  the  police  officer 
took  the  boy  camping.    The  boy  improved  a  great  deal.    He  sold  papers 
for  a  while,  then  worked  as  office  boy  in  a  drug-store,  and  recently  he 
has  worked  seven  months  as  a  helper  in  a  foundry.     The  boy's  older 
brother  is  also  a  ward  of  the  court. 

School  Statement. — I  am  77  years  old.  I  left  school  when  I  was  16. 
I  was  then  in  the  7  grade.  I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was  8  years 
old.  The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are  reading 
because  /  bad  to  read  the  names  of  the  streets. 

30.  An  Irish  family  with  six  children,  one  of  whom  is  married. 
The  parents  came  to  this  country  when  the  father  was  twenty-two  and 
the  mother  nineteen,  and  they  were  married  three  years  later.  The 
father,  who  was  a  structural  iron-worker's  helper,  died  when  the  children 
were  small,  and  the  mother  used  to  scrub  offices  at  night  before  they  were 
old  enough  to  help.  The  house  of  six  rooms  is  clean,  but  the  family  on 
the  whole  are  shiftless  and  happy-go-lucky.  The  mother  was  very  un- 
truthful to  the  probation  officer  about  the  boy  and  was  spasmodically 
severe  in  dealing  with  him.  When  he  was  fourteen  he  was  brought  into 
court,  charged  with  flipping  cars,  and  was  put  on  probation.  When  he 

279 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND   THE   HOME 

was  fifteen  he  was  in  again,  charged  with  breaking  open  a  peanut  slot 
machine  and  stealing  $i  i  worth  of  goods;  he  was  once  more  put  on  pro- 
bation. Within  a  few  months  he  was  brought  in  again,  charged  with 
incorrigibility  and  flipping  cars,  and  he  was  this  time  committed  to  the 
John  Worthy  School.  He  was  under  the  care  of  a  probation  officer,  who 
says  she  visited  the  home  once  a  week  but  seldom  saw  the  boy.  She  says 
she  had  very  little  help  from  the  mother  and  could  not  rely  on  anything 
she  said.  The  boy  and  the  mother  always  quarreled  over  the  boy's  wages; 
both  wanted  what  he  earned.  He  began  work  at  fourteen  as  a  messenger 
boy,  but  he  has  never  been  a  good  worker  and  at  present  he  is  not  working 
at  all.  A  younger  brother  is  also  a  ward  of  the  court. 

School  Statement. — I  am  18  years  old.  I  left  school  when  I  was  14. 
I  was  .then  in  the  7  grade.  I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was  g  years 
old.  The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are  Ariib- 
matic,  Reading,  Writing,  Spelling  because  they  are  in  use  to  me  in  my  work. 
Reivet  Heating. 

31.  A  German-American  family  with  six  children,  of  whom  this 
boy  is  the  eldest.    The  father  was  twenty-two  and  the  mother  seventeen 
when  they  were  married.    The  father  was  a  drunkard,  and  the  mother 
supported  the  family  for  years  by  washing.     Four  years  ago  she  got  a 
divorce  and  has  married  again;   the  boy's  stepfather  is  a  decent,  indus- 
trious man  who  works  in  the  stockyards.    The  home  is  still  untidy  and  un- 
attractive and  the  children  are  dirty.     This  boy's  delinquency  occurred 
when  he  was  fourteen  years  old  while  the  mother  was  working  and  was 
not  able  to  care  for  the  children.    He  was  brought  into  court  with  another 
boy  for  stealing  hams  from  a  railroad  car,  and  was  put  on  probation  under 
the  care  of  an  officer,  who  says  she  has  never  had  any  trouble  with  him. 
She  called  at  the  home  every  two  weeks  and  always  talked  to  him  in  the 
presence  of  his  mother.    The  mother  enjoys  the  officer's  visits  and  thinks 
that  they  have  a  good  influence  on  the  boy.    The  boy  is  well  behaved 
now  and  has  a  good  work  record.    At  one  time  he  worked  in  "the  Yards" 
but  he  is  now  employed  by  a  railway  company.    He  has  always  "given 
in"  his  wages. 

School  Statement. — I  am  77  years  old.  I  left  school  when  I  was 
14.  I  was  then  in  the  6  grade.  I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was  5 
years  old.  The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are 
Figureing  because  It  helps  me  to  figure  my  time. 

32.  A  Canadian  family  with  three  children.     The  father  died  a 
good  many  years  ago.    The  mother  supported  the  family  by  washing 
and  cleaning,  and  the  three  children  were  left  alone  all  day.    The  home 
was  always  very  poor,  and  the  family  had  county  help  for  a  long  time. 
The  two  boys  would  not  help  the  mother  when  they  were  old  enough, 
and  she  is  now  living  with  the  married  daughter  and  working  in  a  laundry. 
At  the  age  of  fifteen  this  boy  was  brought  into  court  as  incorrigible. 
He  and  his  brother  were  said  not  to  have  proper  parental  care  and  to  be 
sleeping  in  basements;   he  was  put  on  probation.    At  the  age  of  sixteen 
he  was  brought  in  again  on  the  charge  of  stealing  meat  from  the  cars  on 
the  Illinois  Central  tracks  to  the  amount  of  $25;    he  was  committed  to 

280 


FAMILY  PARAGRAPHS  RELATING  TO  BOYS 

the  John  Worthy  School.    He  is  now  in  the  County  Hospital  with  typhoid 
fever.    He  is  a  good  worker  when  well. 

33.  An  Irish  family  with  eight  children.    The  father  was  twenty- 
four  and  the  mother  eighteen  when  they  were  married,  and  they  came 
to  this  country  fourteen  years  later.    The  father  is  a  common  laborer,  a 
shiftless  drinking  man,  who  has  never  been  able  to  support  the  family. 
The  mother  did  night  janitor  work  for  fourteen  years,  leaving  the  children 
with  no  one  to  look  after  them  evenings.    The  home  was  neat  and  pleasant, 
but  the  family  have  always  lived  in  a  very  bad  neighborhood  where 
saloons,  pool  rooms,  low  theaters,  and  dance  halls  offer  every  temptation. 
At  the  age  of  fifteen  this  boy  was  brought  into  court  charged  with  stealing, 
and  was  put  on  probation.     He  had  broken  a  window  valued  at  $5.00, 
also  a  show  case  valued  at  $5.00,  and  had  stolen  two  shirts  valued  at  $1.00. 
Within  a  year  he  was  brought  in  again,  charged  with  disorderly  conduct, 
having  been  arrested  on  the  street,  intoxicated;    he  was  again  put  on 
probation.    The  police  officer  to  whom  he  was  paroled  says  that  the  boy 
tried  hard  to  improve  but  "his  old  reputation  was  against  him  and  he  was 
always  being  arrested  for  anything  that  went  wrong  in  the  neighborhood." 
The  boy  reported  every  month  until  he  grew  too  old.     He  is  nineteen 
years  old  now.    When  the  investigator  visited  the  home  he  was  in  the 
House  of  Correction  for  two  months  as  a  result  of  being  arrested  in  a 
rfotel  with  some  girls  from  the  country.    The  boy  is  a  teamster  and  on 
the  whole  is  a  pretty  good  worker  and  good  to  the  family.     He  is  very 
illiterate,  however,  and  can  scarcely  read  or  write.    The  mother  says  that 
a  younger  brother,  who  is  now  in  the  John  Worthy  School  for  the  second 
time,  "can't  learn  well"  and  hates  to  go  to  school,  and  that  is  the  cause 
of  his  delinquency.    Two  sisters  are  now  working  and  support  the  family. 

34.  This  boy  was  one  of  five  children  with  an  American  father 
and  an  Irish  mother.     The  parents  were  married  when  the  father  was 
twenty-five  and  the  mother  twenty-two.    The  father,  who  died  from  the 
effects  of  a  railroad  accident,  had  been  an  iron-worker's  helper  earning 
good  wages,  but  he  drank,  and  the  family  never  got  on  very  well.    After 
the  death  of  the  father,  the  mother  went  to  work  in  a  laundry.    They 
lost  their  home  on  which  they  had  paid  $600  out  of  $1600;   one  of  the 
children  died;    and  the  discouraged  mother  began  to  drink  as  her  hus- 
band had  done.     Because  of  her  bad  habits  the  family  were  put  out  of 
several  houses,  and  finally  the  court  took  the  two  younger  girls  and  put 
them  in  a  school  for  dependent  girls.    This  boy  was  then  twelve  years 
old  and,  not  having  anyone  to  care  for  him,  played  truant,  ran  away,  broke 
into  a  candy  store  at  2.30  a.  m.,  and  then  slept  in  a  barn.     He  was  sent 
to  the  Chicago  Parental  School.    Two  years  later  he  broke  into  a  coal 
office  and  took  $1.15  from  the  telephone  box,  one  harness,  and  fifteen 
coal  bags.     He  was  sent  to  a  state  institution  for  delinquent  boys.     An 
older  brother,  who  is  a  street  laborer,  recently  had  the  mother  arrested 
for  drinking. 

IV.     UNSYMPATHETIC  STEP-PARENTS 

35.  An  Irish  family  with  three  children.    The  boy's  father  died  of 
tuberculosis  on  the  same  day  the  boy  was  born.     He  had  been  ill  for 

281 


THE    DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 

some  time,  and  the  mother  worked  as  a  seamstress  almost  until  the  day 
of  the  boy's  birth.  She  had  come  to  this  country  when  she  was  twenty  and 
was  married  four  years  later.  The  boy's  stepfather  is  a  drunkard  and 
beats  his  wife  and  abuses  the  children.  He  works  between  sprees  and  has 
been  a  laborer  in  one  establishment  for  many  years,  but  does  not  support 
the  family  and  was  recently  in  the  House  of  Correction.  The  mother 
kept  a  little  candy  and  grocery  store  for  a  time  but  "gave  too  much 
credit"  and  was  finally  obliged  to  give  it  up.  The  family  then  lived  in 
four  rooms  back  of  their  store.  The  boy's  older  sister  works  regularly 
and  earns  $8.00  a  week  and  "gives  in"  all  of  it.  The  boy's  stepbrother, 
who  is  still  in  school,  has  always  been  delicate  and  was  blind  at  one 
time.  When  this  boy  was  thirteen,  he  was  brought  into  court  on  the  charge 
of  stealing.  He,  with  another  boy,  broke  into  a  store  and  stole  goods 
worth  $10;  he  was  also  charged  with  staying  away  from  home  and  sleep- 
ing out  nights  and  not  going  to  school.  He  was  put  on  probation,  but 
within  a  year  he  was  brought  in  again  as  incorrigible;  his  mother  said 
he  was  an  idle  bad  boy,  and  that  she  could  not  control  him.  He  was 
committed  to  the  John  Worthy  School  for  eleven  months.  When  released 
he  was  put  under  the  care  of  a  police  officer  who  says  he  tried  to  co- 
operate with  the  mother  and  also  tried  to  break  up  the  boy's  connection 
with  a  tough  gang  to  which  he  belonged  and  to  counteract  the  father's 
bad  example.  The  officer  says  that  the  boy  will  never  really  improve 
unless  he  stays  away  from  his  stepfather  and  gives  up  the  "gang"  with 
which  he  has  been  associating.  He  says  that  the  stepfather  has  always 
been  cruel  to  the  boy,  and  that  the  house  was  anything  but  a  home,  so 
that  the  boy  stayed  away  from  it  as  much  as  he  possibly  could.  He  used 
to  steal  the  milk  and  bread  from  porches.  The  mother  says  that  the  officer 
did  all  that  he  could  for  the  boy.  She  says  the  boy  used  to  keep  his  wages 
from  time  to  time  and  then  disappear  for  several  days,  spending  it  all 
with  a  "tough  crowd."  A  short  time  ago  he  spent  $28,  a  month's  wages, 
in  this  way,  and  has  not  been  home  since.  He  has  been  sleeping  nights  in 
a  coal  office  where  he  works.  His  employer  speaks  well  of  him  and  says 
he  is  not  a  bad  boy  but  "a  rover  by  nature."  He  has  had  a  good  many 
jobs,  chiefly  as  errand  or  messenger  boy,  but  has  never  earned  above  $7.00 
a  week. 

36.  A  Hungarian  family  with  ten  children.  Both  parents  came  to 
this  country  when  they  were  children.  The  mother  has  been  married  three 
times,  and  this  boy,  who  is  the  child  of  her  second  husband,  was  in  an 
orphan  asylum  from  the  time  he  was  nine  until  he  was  thirteen  years  of 
age.  His  relations  with  his  stepfather  have  never  been  pleasant.  The 
stepfather  is  a  presser  in  a  tailor-shop  and  makes  very  good  wages,  but 
is  harsh  and  unkind.  The  boy  is  not  staying  at  home  now, — he  says  he  is 
nagged  and  scolded  so  much!  He  has  always  been  inclined  to  steal, 
and  when  his  mother  took  boarders  he  used  to  steal  from  them.  He  has 
an  older  sister  who  has  been  in  court  twice  and  is  now  in  Geneva.  When 
the  boy  was  thirteen,  he  was  brought  into  court  charged  with  assaulting 
his  stepfather  with  a  pail.  The  stepfather  and  mother  both  said  he  was 
beyond  their  control  and  would  not  go  to  school.  He  was  committed  to 
the  John  Worthy  School  for  four  months.  At  the  age  of  fourteen  he  was 
brought  in  again,  charged  with  stealing  $14  from  a  boarder.  He  was  again 

282 


FAMILY  PARAGRAPHS  RELATING  TO  BOYS 

sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School,  this  time  for  one  year.  When  released  he 
was  put  under  the  care  of  a  probation  officer,  who  says  he  co-operated  with 
the  school  teachers  and  the  principal.  The  mother  also  helped  some,  but 
the  stepfather  was  too  harsh.  The  boy  kept  one  job  for  over  a  year,  but 
has  had  nothing  steady  since.  His  former  employer  was  interested  in 
him,  but  became  convinced  that  the  boy  was  "unreliable." 

37.  A  German  family  with  four  children.    The  mother  is  dead  and 
there  is  a  stepmother.     They  are  industrious,  quiet  people  and  have  a 
pleasant  home.    The  father  has  worked  fourteen  years  for  one  firm  as  a 
cabinet  maker  and  earns  $153  week.    After  the  mother's  death  four  years 
ago,  this  boy  seems  to  have  "gone  to  the  bad."    The  boy  and  the  father 
lived  with  a  married  sister  for  a  time  and  no  one  exercised  any  control 
over  the  boy.    The  stepmother  is  pretty  hard  on  him  now  and  is  always 
finding  fault  with  him.    He  was  very  slow  and  indolent  at  school  and  was 
repeatedly  sent  home.    At  the  age  of  fourteen  he  was  brought  into  court 
with  another  boy  on  the  charge  of  stealing  three  bags  of  oats  and  was 
committed  to  the  John  Worthy  School.     At  the  age  of  fifteen  he  was 
brought  in  again  on  the  charge  of  incorrigibility.     He  would  not  go  to 
school  and  he  smoked  cigarettes.     He  was  again  committed  to  the  John 
Worthy  School.     At  the  age  of  sixteen  he  was  brought  into  court  for 
stealing  from  a  railroad  car  and  leaving  home  without  just  cause,  and  was 
sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School  for  the  third  time.    The  boy  was  under 
the  care  of  a  police  officer  and  two  different  probation  officers.    The  police 
officer  called  at  the  home  whenever  he  was  in  the  neighborhood,  and  the 
other  officers  visited  the  boy  at  different  times  twice  a  month  and  helped 
him  to  get  work.    They  were  "very  sorry  for  the  boy,  but  did  not  know 
anything  that  could  be  done  for  him."    The  father  and  the  stepmother 
do  not  think  he  has  improved  and  the  stepmother  seems  to  think  that  he 
never  will.     He  was  recently  in  the  House  of  Correction,  but  for  the  last 
two  months  has  been  working  as  a  teamster,  earning  $12  a  week.     He 
says  he  is  planning  to  buy  a  team  for  himself  within  a  year. 

School  Statement. — I  am  18  years  old.  I  left  school  when  I  was  14. 
I  was  then  in  the  5  grade.  I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was  6  years 
old.  The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are  Reading 
Writing  because  /  bad  to  read  and  writ  out  all  of  the  work  that  would  come 
in  and  the  storage  that  we  would  take  in. 

38.  A  Polish  family  with  three  children.    The  mother  died  when 
the  boy  was  very  small;   the  father  married  again,  and  the  two  youngest 
children  are  the  second  wife's.     The  stepmother  can  speak  no  English. 
They  live  in  a  pleasant,  well-kept,  four-room  apartment.    The  father, 
who  has  always  been  a  day  laborer,  is  a  good,  industrious  man,  but  has 
no  interest  whatever  in  the  boy;   and  the  stepmother  does  not  know  and 
does  not  seem  to  care  what  has  become  of  him.    He  has  always  lived  on 
the  streets,  and  when  in  school  went  with  boys  who  were  habitual  truants. 
At  the  age  of  twelve  he  was  brought  into  court  for  truancy,  and  was  sent 
to  the  Chicago  Parental  School.    Three  years  later  he  was  brought  into 
court  on  a  burglary  charge;   he  was  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School  for 
one  year.     The  parents  say  that  at  about  the  time  when  they  expected 
him  back  a  policeman  told  them  that  the  boy  had  been  arrested  for 

283 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 

grand  larceny  and  had  been  sent  to  jail.  They  have  not  heard  from  him 
and  have  no  idea  where  he  is  serving  his  sentence.  He  has  never  been 
under  the  care  of  a  probation  officer. 

39.  An  Italian  family  with  three  children,  this  boy  the  eldest.    The 
father  was  eighteen  and  the  mother  twenty-nine  when  they  were  married. 
The  mother  had  just  come  to  this  country,  but  the  father  had  been  here 
ever  since  he  was  eleven  years  old.    The  mother  died  when  this  boy  was 
thirteen  years  old  and  the  father  married  again.    The  boy  and  his  step- 
mother are  not  friendly.    The  family  live  in  five  rooms,  but  formerly  had 
only  two.    The  father,  a  street-sweeper,  used  to  "go  on  sprees"  but  is 
more  steady  now,  although  he  does  not  work  as  regularly  as  he  did  before 
the  boy  began  to  earn  money.    The  father  says  he  got  rheumatism  from 
working  in  ditches  and  that  poor  health  keeps  him  out  of  work.    He  says 
the  boy  gambles  and  does  not  bring  home  all  his  wages.    There  is  evi- 
dently ill  feeling  between  them.     At  the  age  of  fourteen  the  boy  was 
brought  into  court,  charged  with  malicious  mischief;    he  was  put  on 
probation.    At  the  age  of  sixteen  he  was  brought  in  again,  charged  with 
stealing  brass;  he  was  again  put  on  probation.    The  parents  say  that  the 
probation  officer  was  good  to  him.    The  visits  of  the  officer  varied  accord- 
ing to  conditions.     He  preferred  to  visit  the  home  because  of  the  boy's 
difficulty  with  his  stepmother  and  did  not  have  the  boy  report  to  him. 
He  supplied  the  family  with  some  clothing  and  provisions  on  several 
occasions  and  secured  work  for  the  boy.    The  probation  officer  says  he  is 
a  "decent  sort  of  a  boy  but  works  unsteadily";    "his  temper  and  sense  of 
injustice"  caused  by  the  attitude  of  his  father  and  stepmother  got  him  into 
trouble.    The  investigator  thought  the  father  seemed  to  regard  him  as  a 
"vicious,  unrelated  creature,"  but  was  very  anxious  to   get  his  wages. 
The  boy  sold  papers  for  six  years  out  of  school  hours  before  he  was  old 
enough  to  get  a  working  certificate  and  earned  about  $3.00  a  week.    When 
he  was  fourteen  he  earned  $4.50.    More  recently  he  earned  $6.00  a  week  as 
shipping  clerk  in  a  printing  office,  but  the  last  two  months  he  has  been  out 
of  work.     He  is  very  fond  of  cheap  "shows"  and  he  sings  in  front  of 
saloons  in  the  summer. 

School  Statement. — I  am  16  years  old.  I  left  school  when  I  was 
14.  I  was  then  in  the  5  grade.  I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was  8 
years  old.  The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are 
Reading  and  writing  because  /  was  a  shipping  clerk. 

40.  An  Irish  family  with  four  children.    The  father,  who  did  not 
come  to  this  country  until  he  was  twenty-three,  is  an  assistant  shipping 
clerk  in  a  factory,  earning  $14  a  week.    They  have  a  clean,  good  home  of 
six  rooms,  which  they  own,  but  the  stepmother  is  very  nagging.    This 
boy  was  brought  into  court  at  the  age  of  fourteen  by  his  parents,  who  said 
that  he  ran  away  from  home  and  would  not  work  or  go  to  school.    The 
father  and  the  stepmother  said  they  had  consulted  their  clergyman  as 
to  what  could  be  done  to  keep  the  boy  in  school  and  away  from  bad 
company,  and  he  suggested  the  John  Worthy  School  as  a  preventive 
measure.    The  boy  was  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School  for  three  months 
and  then  was  released  on  probation.     He  was  under  the  care  of  a  proba- 
tion officer  who  "performed  her  duty  satisfactorily"  according  to  the 

284 


FAMILY  PARAGRAPHS  RELATING  TO  BOYS 

father.  She  often  called  at  the  home  and  the  boy  reported  to  her  every 
week.  She  thought  him  a  good  boy,  misunderstood  by  the  stepmother, 
and  through  her  by  the  father.  During  their  interviews  she  tried  to  bring 
about  a  better  understanding  between  the  parents  and  the  child.  Since 
the  boy  has  been  away  from  home  he  has  written  irregularly  to  the  pro- 
bation officer.  At  one  time  he  was  a  messenger  boy,  and  later  a  lineman 
with  a  telegraph  company.  He  is  now  on  a  farm  in  South  Dakota. 

41.  A  German-Jewish  family  with  five  children.    The  father  has 
married  again,  and  the  four  children  of  this  marriage  are  the  only  ones  at 
home.    One  of  the  others  is  in  a  home  for  crippled  children,  one  is  in 
Canada,  one  is  in  a  home  for  dependent  boys,  one  is  in  an  institution  for 
delinquent  boys,  and  one  ran  away  from  home  because  he  could  not  get 
along  with  his  stepmother.    The  father  was  twenty-four  when  he  immi- 
grated and  the  stepmother  thirty-five,  but  they  have  lived  in  Chicago 
only  seven  years.    They  lived  for  a  time  in  Canada  and  then  in  New  York. 
They  have  a  dirty  apartment  of  four  rooms  on  the  second  floor,  rear, 
but  use  only  two  rooms  and  want  to  rent  the  other  two.    The  father  is 
a  presser  and  could  earn  fair  wages,  but  he  works  very  little,  drinks,  and 
is  cruel  to  the  family,  who  are  constantly  dependent  on  charity.     They 
have  received  aid  from  a  charitable  society,  from  a  settlement,  and  from 
the  county.    The  stepmother  is  a  hardworking  woman,  who  washes  and 
scrubs  in  order  to  help  support  the  family,  but  who  has  little  interest 
in  the  children.    She  says,  "A  person  can  barely  care  for  her  own  children. 
How  can  she  care  for  or  control  strange  ones?"    When  this  boy  was  ten 
years  old,  he  was  brought  into  court  for  being  out  after  midnight  and  was 
sent  to  a  home  for  dependents.    Later  he  was  brought  in  on  a  truancy 
charge  and  committed  to  the  Chicago  Parental  School,  but  the  order 
was  changed  and  he  was  sent  to  a  hospital  for  treatment.     Two  years 
later  he  was  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School  on  a  charge  of  larceny  and 
the  next  year  he  was  in  another  institution  for  delinquent  boys.     After 
his  release  he  was  under  the  care  of  a  probation  officer,  who  says  that  the 
boy  has  been  discouraging  at  all  times.    She  went  to  see  him  every  week, 
and  found  that  the  stepmother  always  had  something  bad  to  say  about 
him;  the  father  "was  at  least  truthful."    The  boy  has  been  in  institutions 
the  greater  part  of  the  last  four  years.     The  stepmother  says  that  the 
probation  officer  is  very  good.    A  younger  brother  has  had  an  equally 
bad  school  record,  has  also  been  in  the  Parental  School,  and  is  now  in 
an  institution  for  dependent  boys.     The  probation  officer  says  the  step- 
mother declared  she  hated  the  children  and  that  her  only  interest  in  them 
was  due  to  the  fact  that  they  could  earn  when  they  were  fourteen  years 
old.    The  boy  did  well  in  a  manual  training  class  in  a  Jewish  training 
school. 

School  Statement. — I  am  20  years  old.  1  left  school  when  I  was  13. 
I  was  then  in  the  2  grade.  I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was  10  years 
old.  [The  boy  could  not  write  any  words  or  sentences.] 

42.  The  parents  of  this  Polish  boy  were  married  when  both  were 
about  twenty  and  came  to  this  country  a  few  years  later.     The  boy's 
mother  died  before  he  was   two  years  old,  and  the  father   remarried. 
The  father  used  to  get  drunk  and  did  not  work  steadily.    He  died  when 

285 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 

the  boy  was  about  seven.  The  stepmother  has  remarried  and  the  boy  has 
no  real  home.  The  stepmother  says  the  boy  is  "no  good";  he  would  not 
mind  his  step-parents,  and  so  they  would  not  keep  him.  He  boards,  and 
the  stepmother  very  seldom  sees  him.  The  stepmother  says  the  boy  has 
not  improved  and  never  will;  she  says  "he  will  always  be  bad."  The 
probation  officer  says  he  has  done  very  well  considering  his  chances  in 
life.  At  the  age  of  fourteen  he  was  brought  into  court  charged  with  as- 
sault; he,  with  two  other  boys,  assaulted  a  man  and  robbed  him  of  $1.00. 
He  was  committed  to  the  John  Worthy  School  for  seven  months.  The 
boy  was  paroled  to  a  police  officer.  The  stepmother  says  the  officer  called 
to  see  the  boy  about  four  times  and  the  boy  reported  to  the  officer  once 
a  month.  The  officer  tried  to  get  him  to  go  to  night  school.  The  boy  is 
now  nineteen  years  old  and  was  recently  sent  to  the  House  of  Correction 
on  a  burglary  charge.  He  has  worked  a  short  time  in  several  different 
places,  beginning  with  a  job  as  an  elevator  boy  at  $5.00  a  week.  His 
last  position  was  a  good  one.  He  worked  in  a  foundry  as  a  core  maker  for 
eighteen  months. 

School  Statement. — I  am  19  years  old.  I  left  school  when  I  was 
14.  I  was  then  in  the  4  grade.  I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was  9 
years  old.  The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are 
Manual  Taraing  because  rigthig — [Boy  unable  to  complete  statement.] 

43.  This  boy  was  one  of  two  children  of  Italian  parents  who  lived 
on  a  farm  in  Italy  before  immigration  and  came  to  Chicago  when  the 
father  was  twenty-six.    When  this  boy  was  five  years  old,  his  mother  died 
and  his  father  remarried  shortly  after.    The  oldest  boy  could  not  get  along 
with  his  stepmother  and  left  home  three  years  ago.    There  are  six  children 
by  this  second  marriage,  all  at  home.     They  have  a  comfortable  five- 
room  home.    The  stepmother  thinks  her  boys  should  not  work,  although 
they  are  over  sixteen.    This  boy  has  worked  for  his  father,  who  is  an 
electrician,  for  four  years,  and  receives  no  wages.    The  boy  is  a  Catholic, 
and  his  stepmother  and  the  rest  of  the  family  have  become  Protestants. 
This  is  a  constant  source  of  contention.    The  stepmother  says  the  boy 
steals,  but  the  probation  officer  says  they  give  him  no  spending  money 
and  he  is  not  to  blame,  for  he  works  faithfully  and  earns  more  than  his 
clothes.    When  he  was  thirteen,  he  was  brought  into  court  on  a  vagrancy 
charge;  the  boy  said  his  father  was  cruel  to  him;  he  was  put  on  probation. 
The  next  winter  his  father  brought  him  to  court  and  charged  him  with 
incorrigibility,  saying  he  was  disobedient.     He  was  sent  to  the  John 
Worthy  School  for  one  year.    Four  months  later  the  family  charged  him 
with  refusing  to  work  and  not  staying  home  nights.     He  was  again  sent  to 
the  John  Worthy  School  for  one  year.     The  probation  officer  says  the  boy 
would  be  a  straightforward  manly  boy  if  he  received  good  home  treat- 
ment.   The  boy  has  no  bad  habits  and  likes  to  read,  but  the  father  will 
not  permit  him  to  read  anything  but  religious  books,  which  do  not  appeal 
to  the  boy.    The  officer  thinks  that  the  parents  have  become  religious 
fanatics. 

V.     DRUNKEN  PARENTS 

44.  An   Irish-American  family  with  twelve  children,  two  dead. 
The  mother  was  seventeen  at  marriage.    The  father  is  a  steamfitter  by 

286 


FAMILY  PARAGRAPHS  RELATING  TO  BOYS 

trade,  but  a  hopeless  drunkard  who  spends  about  nine  months  out  of 
every  twelve  in  the  House  of  Correction.  The  mother  scrubs  and  washes, 
but  is  quite  helpless  in  attempting  to  care  for  so  large  a  family.  They 
live  in  a  wretchedly  poor  home  of  four  rooms.  The  probation  officer 
says  none  of  the  children  started  with  a  fair  inheritance  of  physical  or 
moral  strength.  This  boy's  ambition  is  to  be  a  prize  fighter.  The  mother 
seems  bewildered  with  her  troubles  and,  if  the  boys  will  only  work  and 
give  her  their  pay,  she  does  not  care  where  they  live  or  loaf.  The  eldest 
son  has  left  home;  the  second  son  is  like  the  father  and  is  now  in  the  House 
of  Correction;  two  other  boys  are  wards  of  the  court;  a  little  girl  of  seven 
has  tuberculosis.  The  family  have  been  given  some  charitable  assistance. 
At  the  age  of  twelve  this  boy  was  brought  into  court  charged  with  stealing 
1 1  gold  rings  valued  at  $30;  the  mother  was  unable  to  control  him. 
He  was  committed  to  the  John  Worthy  School  for  eight  months.  When 
he  was  thirteen  he  was  brought  in,  charged  with  stealing  grain  from  the 
railroad;  he  was  again  committed  to  the  John  Worthy  School  for  eleven 
months.  When  he  was  fifteen,  he  was  brought  in  again,  charged  with 
stealing  brass  from  a  coal  company;  and  he  was  put  under  the  care  of  a 
probation  officer  who  called  at  the  home  frequently.  She  felt  sorry  for 
the  whole  family  and  helped  them  all  she  could;  she  provided  the  children 
with  clothes  that  they  might  attend  school.  The  boy  left  home  a  week 
before  the  investigator  called.  The  mother  said  she  had  no  idea  where  he 
was  going;  he  simply  did  not  turn  up  one  evening  and  she  heard  he  had 
"gone  off"  with  three  boys.  She  says  the  boys  often  do  that  and  she  sup- 
poses they  are  as  well  off  as  they  would  be  at  home.  This  boy  gave  his 
mother  his  pay  when  he  had  any.  He  was  a  delivery  boy  in  a  large 
department  store  for  a  year  and  worked  as  package  boy  in  another  de- 
partment store  for  a  year  and  a  half. 

45.  A  Bohemian  family  with  five  children,  one  of  whom  is  dead, 
one  in  the  John  Worthy  School,  and  one  has  run  away  from  home.  The 
parents  were  married  when  the  father  was  twenty-six  and  the  mother 
twenty,  and  came  to  this  country  the  same  year.  They  can  speak  only 
a  little  English.  They  live  in  a  poor  home  in  a  house  that  is  old  and  damp; 
and  they  take  occasional  lodgers.  The  mother  drinks  heavily  and  has  a 
bad  temper.  The  father  is  a  decent  and  hardworking  man,  a  tailor,  who 
did  own  his  own  shop,  but  has  "gone  down."  He  is  now  ill  in  the  hospital, 
and  the  family  are  quite  destitute.  At  the  age  of  fifteen  this  boy  was 
brought  into  court  on  the  charge  of  stealing  a  suit  of  clothes  valued  at 
$10,  and  three  pairs  of  trousers  valued  at  $6.00.  He  was  sent  to  the  John 
Worthy  School.  At  the  age  of  sixteen  he  was  brought  in  again  as  incor- 
rigible; he  would  not  work  and  loitered  on  the  streets  with  bad  boys; 
he  was  again  committed  to  the  John  Worthy  School.  The  boy  was  paroled 
to  a  regular  probation  officer  on  his  release.  The  officer  says  the  boy  has 
now  run  away  from  home.  She  feels  that  he  has  been  the  victim  of  bad 
home  conditions  and  that  there  is  little  hope  for  him.  He  was  a  teamster, 
and  his  mother  says  he  earned  about  $10  a  week  for  a  time  but  never 
brought  his  wages  home.  Later  he  joined  the  navy  but  was  imprisoned 
for  four  months  for  some  offense  committed  there.  He  was  said  to  be 
"very  large  and  overgrown" — "overbearing,  and  tried  to  rule  every- 
thing." He  ran  away  with  a  circus  two  years  ago,  and  the  family  think 

287 


THE    DELINQUENT   CHILD   AND   THE    HOME 

he  is  in  Texas.  The  mother  says  the  John  Worthy  School  did  not  do  the 
boy  much  good,  but  she  was  glad  to  have  his  younger  brother,  who  is  now 
fifteen,  sent  there,  because  he  could  not  get  work  and  times  were  so  hard. 
She  seems  to  want  to  get  rid  of  all  her  children. 

46.  An  Irish  family  with  three  children  of  whom  this  boy  is  the 
eldest.    The  parents  were  married  when  the  father  was  forty-eight  and 
the  mother  twenty-six.    The  father  had  then  been  in  this  country  more 
than  twenty  years,  but  the  mother  had  come  over  more  recently.    The 
home  has  always  been  cheerless  and  unattractive.     Both  parents  drink, 
and  the  mother  is  a  "lazy,  untidy,  dirty,  ignorant  woman,"  who  is  not 
able  to  write.     The  father  is  a  day  laborer  who  sometimes  earns  good 
wages.     This  boy  is  not  normally  bright.    At  the  age  of  twelve  he  left 
school  to  peddle  papers  with  some  other  boys.    He  was  brought  in  that 
same  year  for  truancy,  and  was  sent  to  the  Chicago  Parental  School.   After 
his  release  he  would  not  obey  his  parents,  but  managed  to  keep  out  of 
court  until  three  years  later  when  he  was  arrested  for  throwing  a  rock 
through  a  plate  glass  window  valued  at  $20.     He  was  put  on  probation 
under  the  care  of  a  police  officer.    The  officer  says  that  he  tried  to  help 
the  boy,  but  the  mother  was  not  truthful  and  would  give  no  help,  and 
that  before  long  the  boy  ran  away  and  joined  the  navy.     Before  he 
entered  the  navy  the  boy  had  a  variety  of  "jobs" — he  worked  in  a  ham 
house,  as  a  messenger  boy,  and  then  at  "a  junction." 

47.  A  German  family  with  seven  children.    The  mother  is  Amer- 
ican born.    The  father  immigrated  at  the  age  of  twenty-seven  and  came 
directly  to  Chicago,  where  he  has  lived  for  thirty-three  years.    The  family 
were  at  one  time  fairly  prosperous,  but  the  father  was  ruined  by  drink. 
He  used  to  own  the  saloon  above  which  they  lived,  as  well  as  a  flour  and 
feed  store  with  a  house  in  the  rear,  which  they  rented;   but  he  drank  ta 
excess,  and  five  years  ago  lost  all  they  had.    Since  then  they  have  lived 
in  a  rented  apartment,  very  neat  and  clean  but  barely  furnished.    The 
father  has  rheumatism  badly  and  cannot  work  regularly.     The  mother 
takes  in  washing,  but  does  not  earn  very  much.    One  son  has  been  para- 
lyzed since  he  was  seven  months  old.    At  the  age  of  nine  this  boy  was 
brought  into  court  as  a  truant  and  was  sent  to  the  Chicago  Parental  School. 
A  year  later  he  was  brought  into  court  for  violating  his  parole  and  was 
again  sent  to  the  Parental  School.    At  the  age  of  eleven  he  was  again 
brought  into  court  for  using  vile  language  and  encouraging  boys  to  stay 
away  from  school.     This  time  he  was  committed  to  the  John  Worthy 
School.     At  the  age  of  twelve  he  was  arrested  for  running  away  from 
home  and  attending  school  irregularly.    He  was  put  on  probation — first 
under  the  care  of  a  special  officer  and  later  under  a  police  officer.    The 
last  officer  seems  to  have  made  a  persistent  effort  to  get  the  boy  to  do 
better  and  often  went  to  visit  the  home  and  talk  with  the  parents.    Several 
times  the  officer  secured  work  for  the  boy,  which  he  would  not  take.   He 
finally  joined  the  navy,  where  he  still  is. 

48.  An  American  family  with  three  children  at  home.    The  father 
is  a  waiter  in  a  restaurant  and  works  fairly  steadily,  but  he  drinks  and  is 
very  quarrelsome.     The   mother  is  a  hardworking  woman,  but   has  a 

288 


FAMILY  PARAGRAPHS  RELATING  TO  BOYS 

terrible  temper.  The  oldest  boy  drank,  gambled,  was  immoral,  and  is 
now  in  the  state  penitentiary  serving  a  ten-year  sentence.  A  sister  of 
twenty-one  drinks,  and  the  family  were  put  out  of  a  flat  building  last 
year  because  of  the  girl's  behavior.  The  father  has  always  been  very 
bad,  and  has  supported  the  children  in  their  wrongdoing.  At  the  age 
of  fifteen  this  boy  was  brought  into  court  charged  with  breaking  the  peace; 
he  was  put  on  probation.  At  the  age  of  sixteen  he  was  brought  in  again, 
charged  with  loafing;  he  would  not  work,  he  said  he  "didn't  have  to"; 
he  was  again  put  on  probation.  Within  a  year  he  was  brought  in  again 
on  the  charge  of  stealing  a  box  containing  a  dress  from  a  delivery  wagon; 
he  was  put  on  probation  for  the  third  time.  He  was  brought  into  court 
a  fourth  time,  the  third  within  a  year,  charged  with  burglary;  he, 
with  a  man  twenty-four  years  old,  stole  a  cash  register  with  $50  in  it. 
He  was  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School  and  later  transferred  to  another 
school  for  delinquent  boys.  The  boy  did  not  improve  under  probation. 
The  probation  officer  feels  that  the  parents  were  to  blame  for  the  boy's 
misconduct  and  that  he  might  have  improved  if  she  had  had  their  co-opera- 
tion. The  parents  felt  very  bitterly  about  the  interference  of  the  court 
and  the  probation  officer.  The  probation  officer  called  at  the  home  a 
good  many  times  but  was  admitted  only  once  or  twice  when  she  took  a 
police  officer  with  her.  The  boy  reported  to  the  probation  officer  but 
once.  She  tried  to  send  him  to  different  places  where  he  might  secure 
work,  but  he  would  never  go.  The  boy  always  said  that  he  did  not  have 
to  work  because  his  father  made  a  lot  of  money  as  a  politician.  The 
officer  knows  nothing  of  the  family  at  present;  they  have  moved  every 
two  or  three  months  since  the  boy  came  into  court. 

49.  A  Polish  family  with  seven  children.    The  father  was  thirty 
and  the  mother  twenty-nine  when  they  came  to  this  country  and  neither 
of  them  has  learned  to  speak  English.    The  family  formerly  lived  in  three 
rooms.    They  now  have  a  very  dirty,  bare  home  of  four  rooms  in  a  dark 
rear  apartment  back  of  a  saloon.    The  father  is  a  time-keeper  and  earns 
very  small  wages.    They  seem  to  be  a  low  and  degraded  family;  the  mother 
and  father  both  drink  and  constantly  quarrel  and  fight.     The  mother  is 
frequently  drunk.    When  this  boy  was  twelve  years  old  he  was  brought 
into  court  charged  with  taking  lining  out  of  a  freight  car  in  order  to  sell 
it  for  junk.    He  was  put  on  probation.    The  boy  liked  the  officer  to  whom 
he  was  paroled  and  reported  to  him  once  a  month.     He  has  improved 
in  spite  of  bad  home  surroundings  and  has  been  working  in  "the  Yards" 
for  two  years.    The  boy's  younger  brother  is  also  a  ward  of  the  court; 
another  is  away  from  home  and  the  family  say  he  is  an  "actor." 

School  Statement. — I  am  16  years  old.  I  left  school  when  I  was 
14.  I  was  then  in  the  2  grade.  I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was  9 
years  old.  The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are — 
riten  because [Boy  unable  to  complete  the  statement.] 

50.  An  Irish-American  family  with  five  children,  four  of  them  still 
at  home.     The  father,  an  ex-policeman,  has  become  a  teamster.     Both 
parents  are  intemperate,  and  the  mother  is  an  invalid  and  probably  some- 
what feeble-minded  as  well.     The  home  conditions  have  never  been  good, 
although  the  family  seem  to  have  always  been  self-sustaining.     The 

289 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

mother  thought  this  boy  was  taught  by  his  elder  brother  to  use  cocaine. 
When  the  boy  was  seven  years  old,  he  fell  and  hurt  his  back  so  severely 
that  he  was  not  able  to  go  to  school  for  several  years.  When  he  was 
thirteen  and  in  the  second  grade  at  school,  he  was  brought  into  court  for 
stealing  a  buggy  cushion;  he  was  put  on  probation.  The  following  year 
he  was  charged  with  breaking  into  a  barn,  and  was  sent  to  the  John 
Worthy  School  for  eight  months.  When  he  was  fifteen,  he  was  brought 
in  charged  with  disorderly  conduct  and  was  put  on  probation.  When  he 
was  sixteen,  he  was  in  court  again,  this  time  for  stealing  chickens,  and 
was  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School  for  one  year  and  four  months.  The 
boy  was  first  paroled  to  a  police  officer  and  later  to  a  special  probation 
officer,  to  whom  he  was  very  much  devoted  and  who,  the  mother  thinks, 
"has  been  the  making  of  the  boy."  The  officer  feels,  however,  that  the 
parents  might  have  given  more  help  and  encouragement.  She  says  the 
father  objected  to  court  interference,  and  the  mother  helped  only  when 
pushed  to  extremes.  The  boy  has  worked  as  errand  boy  for  a  year,  giving 
his  mother  all  his  wages.  He  has  worked  in  other  places  but  not  steadily. 

51.  An  American  family  with  eight  children.     At  marriage  the 
father  was  twenty-one,  the  mother  seventeen  years  old.     The  mother 
is  a  shiftless  woman  who  drinks  and  has  the  house  full  of  carousing  men 
and  women.    The  father  is  a  switchman,  earning  good  wages.    The  family 
now  live  in  eight  rooms;   formerly  they  had  only  six.    The  principal  of 
the  school  and  the  probation  officer  say  that  home  influences  have  always 
been  and  still  are  very  bad.    When  the  boy  was  twelve  years  old,  he  and 
two  other  boys  were  brought  into  court,  charged  with  stealing  cigars 
valued  at  $110  and  i2>£  pounds  of  smoking-tobacco  valued  at  $9.00; 
he  was  put  on  probation.     The  boy  is  now  seventeen;    he  has  worked 
as  a  delivery  boy  for  a  State  Street  department  store,  but  during  the  last 
three  months  he  has  been  working  in  a  west  side  theater.    He  gives  his 
wages  to  his  mother. 

School  Statement. — I  am  77  years  old.  I  left  school  when  I  was  15. 
I  was  then  in  the .8th  grade.  I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was  6  years  old. 
The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are  Writing, 
Reading,  Arithmetic  because  I  studied  bard, 

52.  A  German  family  with  twelve  children,  of  whom  this  boy 
is  the  eldest.    The  father  was  twenty-four  and  the  mother  twenty-two 
when  they  were  married,  and  they  immigrated  a  year  later.    The  father 
is  a  pipe-fitter  who  should  earn  good  wages,  but  who  drinks  and  is  out  of 
work.     The  family  have  recently  bought  a  six-room  house,  but  have  a 
mortgage  of  $2200  to  pay.    At  present  no  one  in  the  family  is  at  work. 
The  mother  is  shiftless  and   very  lax  in   her  control  of  the  children. 
The  home  is  dirty  and  crowded,  and  the  boys  in  the  neighborhood  are 
said  to  be  "a  rough  lot."    When  this  boy  was  fourteen  he  was  brought  into 
court  with  another  boy  for  stealing  some  grain  from  a  freight  car.     He 
was  never  in  court  again.    The  police  officer  to  whom  the  boy  was  paroled 
does  not  now  remember  about  the  case.    The  mother  does  not  remember 
that  an  officer  ever  called.     The  boy  worked  for  a  time  shovelling  in  a 
foundry  seven  days  a  week,  but  he  is  now  out  of  a  job.    He  always  "turned 
in"  his  wages. 

290 


FAMILY  PARAGRAPHS  RELATING  TO  BOYS 

School  Statement. — I  am  18  years  old.  I  left  school  when  I  was  14. 
I  was  then  in  the  7  grade.  1  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was  6  years  old. 
The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are  Arithmetic 
and  Reading  because  they  help  me  fell  out  affidavits. 

VI.  SEVERE,  CRUEL,  OR  BRUTAL  PARENTS 

53.  A  German  family  of  seven  children.    Both  father  and  mother 
are  now  dead,  the  home  is  broken  up,  and  this  boy  lives  with  a  married 
brother.    The  father,  who  was  a  milkman,  became  insane  and  was  so  abusive 
to  the  boy  that  he  had  to  leave  home.    When  he  was  fourteen  he  was 
arrested,  with  a  boy  who  had  a  very  bad  record,  charged  with  stealing 
a  tent;   he  was  put  on  probation.    Three  months  later  his  father  brought 
him  in  as  incorrigible;  the  court  however  decided  that  the  father  abused 
the  boy,  and  paroled  him  to  a  police  officer  to  whom  he  reported  once  a 
month.     The  boy  is  not  very  bright,  and  has  worked  very  irregularly. 
He  worked  in  a  candy  factory  for  awhile,  and  drove  a  milk  wagon  for  a 
short  time. 

54.  A  Bohemian  family  with  six  children.    The  mother  died  when 
the  boy  was  very  young,  and  the  father  committed  suicide  about  two 
years  ago.    The  father  was  supposed  to  be  a  tailor,  but  he  was  a  drunken 
loafer,  very  cruel  to  the  children.    When  this  boy  was  eleven  the  father 
brought  him  into  court  as  incorrigible,  saying  that  he  stayed  away  from 
home  and  slept  out  nights;   the  boy  in  turn  claimed  that  his  father  beat 
him  cruelly.     He  was  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School  for  two  months. 
Two  years  later  he  stole  a  box  containing  $4.00  from  a  store,  and  was  again 
sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School  for  two  months.    After  his  release  his 
father  died,  and  the  boy  went  to  live  with  a  married  sister  and  began  to 
work  in  his  brother-in-law's  tailor-shop.    He  has  changed  jobs  since  then 
but  seems  to  have  been  doing  very  well.    At  present  he  is  working  in  a 
box  factory  and  earns  $6.00  a  week.     He  was  first  under  the  care  of  a 
police  officer  and  later  a  probation  officer.    The  last  officer  says  the  boy 
did  not  have  a  fair  chance  until  she  took  him  from  his  home  to  live 
with  his  sister. 

School  Statement. — I  am  77  years  old.  I  left  school  when  I  was  14. 
I  was  then  in  the  4  grade.  I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was  6  years  old. 
[Boy  unable  to  fill  out  the  other  part  of  the  statement.] 

55.  A  German  family  with  five  children,  of  whom  one  died  in 
infancy.    The  father  was  twenty-nine  and  the  mother  twenty-two  when 
they  were  married,  and  they  had  both  immigrated  about  five  years  earlier. 
The  family  live  in  a  four-room  cottage  which  they  own  and  which  is  clean, 
light,  pleasant,  and  comfortably  furnished.     The  father  is  a  watchman 
who  works  regularly,  but  five  years  ago  had  his  leg  cut  off  by  a  train  so 
that  he  was  unable  to  work  for  a  year.    During  this  period  the  mother 
took  in  washing  to  support  the  family.    Both  parents  are  industrious 
and  intelligent,  but  the  father  is  very  strict  and  harsh.    He  beats  the  boy 
severely  when  he  does  wrong,  and  the  boy  is  afraid  to  go  home  when  his 
father  is  there.    The  mother  says  that  the  boy  deceives  her  sometimes, 
but  she  is  fond  of  him.    She  says  that  she  and  her  husband  often  quarrel 

291 


THE    DELINQUENT   CHILD    AND   THE    HOME 

about  him,  and  the  latter  says  he  wishes  the  boy  were  dead.  When  the 
boy  was  five  years  old  he  was  struck  by  a  wagon,  which  passed  over  his 
head,  and  his  mother  thinks  this  "affected  him."  When  he  was  eleven 
years  old  he  was  brought  into  court  for  stealing  a  pocket-book,  while 
delivering  a  message  at  a  house.  His  parents  said  that  he  also  stole  from 
them  and  that  they  could  not  control  him.  He  was  sent  to  an  institution 
for  dependent  children.  The  court  record  is  incomplete,  but  it  appears 
that  the  boy  has  been  in  the  John  Worthy  School  twice,  and  is  now  there. 
The  mother  says  he  smokes,  steals  and  lies;  he  used  to  take  carfare  and 
lunch  money,  pretending  to  have  work,  and  then  only  "bummed."  He 
was  at  one  time  under  the  care  of  a  probation  officer  to  whom  he  would 
not  report.  The  officer  visited  the  home  once  a  month,  and  used  all 
kinds  of  methods  but  could  make  no  impression  on  him.  The  boy  tried 
working  in  a  machine-shop  but  had  a  finger  cut  off  the  third  day  he  was 
there.  He  then  stayed  at  home  and  did  nothing  for  six  weeks.  After  this 
he  became  a  messenger  boy. 

56.  A  Polish  family  with  five  children.    The  father  has  been  dead 
eighteen  years.    The  mother  died  three  years  ago  and  the  home  was  then 
broken  up.     After  her  husband's  death  she  had  married  a  man  who  was 
an    iron-worker,   who  proved    to  be  a  very  brutal    and   disreputable 
man.    The  mother  owned  the  home  and  he  "married  her  for  what  she 
had."    The  neighbors  think  he  killed  her  by  beating  her.    She  is  said  to 
have   been  a  drinking  woman,  and  she  and  the  stepfather  were  very 
cruel  to  the  boy  who  went  hungry  and  half  clad.    When  he  was  fourteen 
he  was  brought  into  court,  charged  with  stealing  a  pail  of  mincemeat 
valued  at  $2.40  from  a  moving  car,  and  he  was  put  on  probation.    When 
he  was  fifteen  he  was  brought  into  court,  charged  with  stealing  seven 
pounds  of  scrap  copper  wire  from  a  freight  car,  and  he  was  again  put  on 
probation  under  the  care  of  a  police  officer.    The  sister  says  the  officer 
called  to  see  the  boy  until  the  home  was  broken  up,  but  the  mother  alone 
would  have  remembered  how  far  he  helped  the  boy.    The  boy  has  worked 
in  a  piano  factory,  a  packing-house  and  a  bakery.    His  present  occupa- 
tion is  unknown  but  he  was  in  the  House  of  Correction  not  long  ago  for 
drinking.     His  three  sisters  have  married  and  his  one  brother  is  in  the 
army. 

57.  A  German  family  with  eight  children,  the  youngest  six  months 
old.    The  father  was  twenty-five  and  the  mother  eighteen  when  they  were 
married,  and  ten  years  later  they  immigrated.    The  mother  can  speak 
very  little  English.     They  have  a  poor,  crowded,  and  very  dirty  home. 
The  father  is  very  cruel  and  brutal,  seldom  works,  and  when  he  does 
work,  spends  all  his  money  for  drink.     He  has  cared  nothing  about  the 
children  and  when  this  boy  was  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School  said, 
"Good  enough  for  him."    The  mother  and  the  boys,  however,  work  hard. 
One  boy  earns  good  wages  driving  a  garbage  wagon.    At  the  age  of  thirteen, 
this  boy  was  brought  into  court  accused  of  entering  a  store  with  a  group 
of  boys  and  stealing  gloves  valued  at  $13.75;    he  was  put  on  probation. 
Within  a  few  months  he  was  brought  in  again,  charged  with  disorderly 
conduct  and  incorrigibility.     He  stole  a  bicycle,  sold  it,  and  gave  the 
money  to  his  mother;    he  was  again  put  on  probation.    At  the  age  of 

292 


FAMILY  PARAGRAPHS  RELATING  TO  BOYS 

fourteen  he  was  brought  in  again,  charged  with  stealing,  and  was  this 
time  committed  to  the  John  Worthy  School  for  eleven  months.  He  was 
first  paroled  to  a  police  officer;  later  to  a  probation  officer.  The  last  officer 
visited  the  home  or.  the  school  once  a  week.  He  would  not  allow  the  boy 
to  report  to  him  as  it  gave  him  an  excuse  to  stay  out  nights.  The  officer 
tried  to  stir  his  ambition  and  make  him  look  to  the  future.  The  brother 
says  that  the  officer  came  to  the  house  and  gave  his  father  "an  awful 
scolding"  and  made  him  go  to  work.  The  boy  is  not  very  bright  but  is 
a  good  worker  and  very  good  to  his  mother  and  sisters.  He  is  ill  now, 
but  at  one  time  he  drove  a  wagon  for  a  tailor  shop;  later  he  worked  six 
months  in  a  spring  factory;  and  after  that  in  a  candy  factory.  He  "gives 
in"  all  his  wages. 

58.  An  Irish-American  family  with  three  children.    The  father,  a 
day  laborer,  was  a  drunkard  and  never  supported  the  family.    His  health 
is  quite  broken  now,  and  he  is  in  bed  most  of  the  time.    The  mother 
died  of  tuberculosis  when  this  boy,  who  is  the  youngest  child,  was  small. 
The  father  was  so  brutal  to  her  that  he  hastened  her  death,  and  he  was 
also  cruel  to  the  children  and  used  to  put  this  boy  out  of  the  house.    The 
girl  who  became  the  housekeeper  after  the  mother  died  is  married  now, 
and  the  father  and  the  boy  live  with  her  in  a  four-room  apartment.    She 
is  very  good  to  the  boy,  and  he  is  fond  of  her.    An  older  brother  is  a  drunk- 
ard and  tramp  and  has  been  in  the  House  of  Correction.     When  this 
boy  was  fourteen,  he  was  brought  into  court  charged  with  stealing  and 
vagrancy.     He  was  accused  of  stealing  coal  from  railroad  cars  and  was 
found  sleeping  under  a  house;  he  was  also  a  truant.    He  was  sent  to  the 
John  Worthy  School  for  eight  months.    When  released  from  the  John 
Worthy  School,  he  was  paroled  to  a  probation  officer  who  became  inter- 
ested in  the  family.     She  visited  the  home  often,  advised  the  sister, 
and  tried  to  show  the  boy  that  she  was  interested  in  his  welfare.    She 
sometimes  took  him  to  the  theater  and  the  circus.    The  sister  says  that 
the  officer  was  always  like  a  mother  to  them  and  tried  to  get  them  any- 
thing they  really  needed.    She  always  liked  to  have  the  officer  call.    The 
boy  is  working  now,  selling  papers.    He  earns  about  $9.00  a  week  and  gives 
what  he  earns  to  his  sister. 

School  Statement. — I  am  77  years  old.  I  left  school  when  I  was 
75.  I  was  then  in  the  4  grade.  I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was  6 
years  old.  The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are 

Reading   Writeing  and  Arithmack   because [Boy  unable   to  finish 

the  schedule], 

59.  A  Bohemian  family  with  ten  children,  two  of  whom  are  dead. 
The  six  oldest  children  were  born  in  Bohemia  and  the  family  came  to  the 
United  States  eight  years  ago,  when  the  father  was  forty-two  and  the 
mother  thirty-seven.     The  father  is  a  laborer  earning  very  small  wages 
and  the  family  have  always  had  four  or  five  boarders.    They  are  quiet, 
respectable  people,  well  liked  in  the  neighborhood  where  they  used  to  live. 
They  are  now  living  on  a  farm  in  Wisconsin  so  that  all  this  information 
was  obtained  from  a  former  neighbor  and  the  probation  officer.     The 
father  was  very  strict  and  beat  the  boy  severely  whenever  he  disobeyed 
so  that  he  often  stayed  away  from  home  after  some  escapade  because  he 

20  293 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

was  afraid  of  his  father.  When  eleven  years  old  he  was  brought  into 
court  by  his  parents  on  the  charge  of  incorrigibility ;  they  said  he  refused  to 
go  to  school  and  would  stay  away  from  home  weeks  at  a  time.  He  was 
sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School  for  three  months,  but  within  a  year  after 
his  release  he  was  brought  into  court  for  stealing  a  goat,  and  was  put  on 
probation.  Four  months  later  he  was  brought  in  for  stealing  from  his 
mother,  who  said  she  could  do  nothing  with  him;  he  was  sent  to  an 
institution  for  delinquent  boys.  He  ran  away  and  came  home,  telling 
his  parents  he  had  been  discharged;  but  he  was  caught  and  returned.  He 
escaped  again,  but  went  to  his  sister's  instead  of  going  home  and  was 
returned  again  to  the  institution.  He  was  later  brought  into  the  Muni- 
cipal Court  to  answer  to  a  charge  of  larceny  brought  by  a  railroad;  he 
was  held  to  the  grand  jury.  He  told  the  court  he  was  almost  eighteen, 
although  records  show  him  to  be  only  fifteen.  The  probation  officer 
says  the  boy  is  defiant  and  utterly  incorrigible.  She  had  him  under  her 
care  for  such  a  short  time  that  she  could  do  little  for  him. 

School  Statement. — I  am  77  years  old.  I  left  school  when  I  was 
14.  I  was  then  in  the  5  grade.  I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was  6 
years  old.  The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are 
Dont  know  because 

VII.     DEGRADED  OR  IMMORAL  PARENTS 

60.  An  Irish  family  with  seven  children,  two  of  whom  are  married. 
They  live  in  a  damp,  untidy  home  of  four  rooms.  The  mother  was  a 
small  child  when  she  immigrated  but  the  father  was  nearly  twenty.  Their 
ages  at  marriage  were  not  ascertained.  Both  parents  formerly  drank, 
quarreled,  were  accused  of  stealing,  and  both  have  been  in  the  House 
of  Correction.  The  mother  is  probably  immoral.  The  family  has,  how- 
ever, come  onto  a  more  decent  plane  of  living  now,  due  to  the  efforts 
of  the  children.  The  father  is  a  painter  and  makes  good  wages  when  he 
works.  When  this  boy  was  nine  years  old  he  was  brought  into  court 
for  stealing  fruit  from  a  fruit-store.  He  had  done  this  before  but  had  not 
been  "taken  up"  because  he  was  so  small.  This  time  he  was  sent  to  the 
John  Worthy  School.  He  was  brought  into  court  again  a  year  later  be- 
cause he  stole  silk,  and  was  put  on  probation.  A  month  later  he  was 
brought  in  again  for  stealing  coal  from  cars  and  was  paroled  to  leave 
town  and  live  with  an  aunt  in  the  country.  Two  different  officers  have 
had  the  care  of  this  boy.  The  last  officer  says  she  was  "not  very  strict 
with  him."  Her  work  was  chiefly  with  the  family,  for  "the  boy  was 
better  than  they  were."  She  visited  the  school  as  well  as  the  home, 
and  the  boy  reported  to  her  frequently.  The  officer  regards  him  as  a 
promising  boy,  in  spite  of  the  bad  conditions  which  have  surrounded 
him.  The  mother  states  that  the  officer  came  often  and  she  enjoyed 
her  visits.  The  boy  worked  for  several  months,  filling  lamps  on  the  ele- 
vated road.  For  a  time  he  drove  a  grocery  wagon;  but  he  is  now  at  home, 
out  of  work  and  without  a  trade.  One  of  the  boy's  sisters  has  also  been 
a  ward  of  the  court. 

School  Statement. — I  am  75  years  old.  I  left  school  when  I  was 
14.  I  was  then  in  the  5  grade.  I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was  7 

294 


FAMILY  PARAGRAPHS  RELATING  TO  BOYS 

years  old.    The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are 
Reading  and  spelling  and  writting.     That  I  liked  best  because 

61.  The  father  of  this  boy  came  from  a  farm  in  Germany  when 
twenty-two,  and  six  years  later  married  a  German-American  girl  of  eigh- 
teen, who  was  born  in  Chicago.    They  had  five  children,  of  whom  this  boy 
is  the  eldest.    The  family  once  bought  an  eight-room  house,  but  the  father 
died  and  they  lost  it.    The  mother  later  became  a  laundress  and  after- 
wards married  an  immoral,  shiftless,  drinking  man,  who  worked  irregularly 
in  the  stockyards  and  who  has  now  deserted  the  family.    They  had  two 
children.    Their  house  is  filthy,  and  the  mother  has  a  bad  reputation.    At 
the  age  of  thirteen,  soon  after  the  death  of  the  father,  the  boy  was  brought 
into  court  as  a  dependent  and  put  in  an  institution  for  dependent  boys 
to  be  kept  until  he  could  be  placed  in  a  home.    After  his  mother  remarried, 
however,  he  returned  to  her.    When  he  was  fifteen  his  mother  brought  him 
in,  saying  that  he  would  not  work  or  attend  school  and  that  he  loitered 
around  with  bad  boys;    he  was  put  on  probation.    The  probation  officer 
says  the  children  are  all  trained  beggars.    The  family  have  been  helped  by 
churches  and  by  a  charitable  society.    The  officer  says  he  visited  the  boy 
every  two  weeks,  but  the  home  influences  were  so  bad  nothing  could 
counteract  them,  and  the  boy  has  not  improved.    Two  of  the  boy's  sisters 
were  in  a  home  for  dependent  girls  but  one  of  them  has  been  "placed 
out." 

62.  An  American  family  with  five  children.     The  parents  were 
married  when  the  father  was  twenty-one  and  the  mother  eighteen.    They 
are  a  very  low  family,  but  have  a  clean,  tidy  home  of  four  rooms.    The 
father,  a  carpenter,  is  a  heavy  drinker,  and  the  older  sons  drink.    One 
son  and  his  wife  have  just  finished  a  jail  sentence,  he  for  highway  robbery, 
and  she  for  drunkenness;    both  have  been  repeatedly  arrested  for  being 
intoxicated.    Another  son  was  a  drunkard  and  never  supported  his  family. 
Whenever  one  of  the  sons  deserted  his  wife,  his  mother  always  allowed 
him  to  come  and  stay  with  her  until  he  "got  ready  to  go  back."    At  the 
age  of  fifteen  this  boy  was  brought  into  court  on  the  charge  of  stealing; 
he  had  stolen  $42  from  his  parents,  and  they  said  he  was  going  with  a 
crowd  of  bad  boys;    he  was  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School.    On  his 
release  he  was  paroled  to  a  police  officer  and  was  never  in  court  again. 
The  officer  says  he  called  at  the  home  about  once  a  month,  and  that  he 
found  the  whole  family  unreliable  and  got  no  help  from  them.     In  spite 
of  the  bad  influences  in  the  family,  the  boy  improved  under  probation. 
He  is  now  nineteen  years  old  and  is  working  as  a  steamfitter's  helper. 
He  has  been  married  about  a  year  but  still  lives  with  his  parents. 

63.  An  Irish-American  family  with  nine  children,  of  whom  three 
are  dead.    The  mother  was  twenty-eight  and  the  father  thirty-one  when 
they  were  married.    When  this  boy  was  nine  years  old,  the  father  deserted 
the  family,  and  the  child  was  brought  into  court  as  a  dependent  and  placed 
in  an  institution  for  dependent  children.    The  father's  desertion  was  only 
temporary  and  he  is  at  home  now  and  works  as  a  day  laborer.     The 
family  live  in  a  four-room  apartment,  which  is  poorly  furnished  and 
dirty.     The  mother  is  a  woman  of  questionable  character,  and  two  of  the 

295 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE    HOME 

girls  in  the  family  have  been  sent  to  an  institution  for  delinquent  girls. 
When  the  boy  was  twelve  he  was  brought  into  court  again  for  assault- 
ing another  boy  and  trying  to  take  money  from  him;  he  was  sent  to  the 
John  Worthy  School,  where  he  now  is.  The  boy  was  never  on  probation. 

64.  A  German  family  with  seven  children,  of  whom  one  is  dead, 
and  four  are  married.    One  of  the  married  children,  however,  still  lives 
at  home.    The  father,  who  is  now  dead,  was  born  in  this  country,  and  the 
mother  immigrated  at  the  age  of  thirteen.    Their  ages  at  marriage  were 
twenty-four  and  twenty-one.    They  have  a  bare,  cold,  miserable  home  of 
four  rooms.    The  family  have  a  bad  reputation  for  drinking  and  immorality. 
The  father,  who  has  been  dead  four  years,  worked  in  the  stockyards, 
was  a  hard  drinker,  and  would  not  support  his  family.    The  mother  scrubs 
in  office  buildings  and  she  and  her  daughters  drink  and  are  immoral. 
One  girl  who  still  lives  at  home  has  an  illegitimate  child  with  her.    At 
the  age  of  twelve  this  boy,  who  belonged  to  a  gang,  was  brought  into  court 
charged  with  stealing;   he,  with  two  other  boys,  entered  the  basement 
of  a  church  and  stole  manual-training  tools  and  type;    he  was  put  on 
probation.    Within  a  year  he  was  brought  in  again  on  the  charge  of  steal- 
ing;  this  time  he,  with  two  other  boys,  one  of  whom  had  been  in  court 
with  him  before,  broke  open  a  show  case  and  stole  five  watches  valued  at 
75  cents  each;    he  was  committed  to  a  home  for  dependent  boys.     At 
the  age  of  thirteen  he  was  brought  in  a  third  time  charged  with  stealing; 
he  and  the  same  boy  who  had  been  in  court  with  him  twice  before  stole 
five  revolvers  from  a  showcase;    he  was  put  on  probation.     Within  a 
year  he  was  in  court  again  with  the  same  boy,  charged  with  stealing 
one  and  a  half  bushels  of  oats;   he  was  committed  to  the  John  Worthy 
School.    At  the  age  of  fifteen  he  was  brought  in  a  fifth  time,  charged  with 
holding  up  several  boys  and  taking  away  their  money;    he  was  put  on 
probation.    The  probation  officer  visited  the   home  regularly  because, 
according  to  her  statement,  "there  lay  the  real  cause  of  the  boy's  delin- 
quency."   The  boy  sometimes  reported  to  the  officer.    The  officer  thinks 
that  the  boy  has  made  no  real  progress  under  probation  and  she  feels 
that  there  is  no  hope  for  the  boy  unless  he  gets  away  from  the  bad  home 
influences.     He  has  worked  as  a  stock  boy,  and  for  three  months  as  an 
express  driver;  at  present  he  is  working  in  a  paint  factory.     He  "gives 
in  "  his  wages. 

65.  This  boy  was  an  illegitimate  child  of  Irish-American  parents. 
His  mother  was  an  immoral  woman,  and  his  stepfather  kept  a  house  of 
prostitution.    The  child  had  no  home  training  and  was  brought  up  by  his 
stepfather's  housekeeper.     When  he  was  fifteen  the  stepfather  brought 
him  into  court,  saying  he  could  not  control  him.    The  boy  was  sent  to 
the  John  Worthy  School  for  five  months.    The  regular  officer  to  whom  the 
boy  was  paroled  after  his  release  went  to  see  him  every  two  or  three  weeks. 
The  stepfather  was  not  interested  in  the  boy  and  the  officer  had  the  co-oper- 
ation only  of  the  housekeeper,  whom  the  boy  did  not  like.    The  boy  liked 
the  officer  but  he  did  not  seem  to  make  much  progress.    The  officer  said 
he  had  a  very  violent  temper  and  had  never  learned  how  to  control  it.    The 
boy  has  been  married  nearly  a  year  now  and  he  and  his  wife  are  living  with 

296 


FAMILY  PARAGRAPHS  RELATING  TO  BOYS 

her  grandmother  in  two  very  dirty  rooms.    He  does  well  only  "by  spells" 
and  at  times  he  beats  his  wife. 

School  Statement. — I  am  ig  years  old.  I  left  school  when  I  was  16. 
I  was  then  in  the  8th  grade.  I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was  8  years 
old.  The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are  my  writ- 
ing and  Grammar. 

66.  A  German  family  with  four  children,  all  of  whom  have  left 
home.    Both  parents  were  over  twenty  years  old  when  they  came  to  this 
country.    Both  drink  and  are  illiterate  and  immoral.    The  mother  speaks 
English  only  brokenly.    The  father  never  worked,  and  the  mother  used 
to  take  in  washing  to  support  the  family  and  is  now  working  in  a  laundry. 
The  family  did  live  in  a  four-room  basement  apartment,  but  now  the 
father  and  the  mother  have  only  two  rooms.    The  home  conditions  were 
always  as  bad  as  possible.    At  the  age  of  fifteen  this  boy  was  brought  into 
court  charged  with  malicious  mischief;    he,  with  a  gang  of  boys,  broke 
windows  in  a  private  house  with  sling  shots;  the  father  was  in  the  House 
of  Correction  and  the  mother  could  not  control  the  boy;   he  was  put  on 
probation  and  was  paroled  to  an  officer,  who  feels  fairly  well  satisfied 
with  the  boy's  progress.     She  wonders  that  he  improved  at  all  "in  such 
dreadful  surroundings."     She  visited  the  home  often,   as   the  family 
needed  more  of  her  time  and  help  than  the  boy.    The  boy  reported  only 
a  few  times.     For  two  months  he  had  worked   in   a  saloon,  and  she 
obtained  for  him    a  position   driving  a  milk  wagon,  in  order  to  get 
him  away  from  the  saloon.     He  ran  away  three  years  ago,  and  the 
mother  has  not  seen  him  since,  although  he  is  in  Chicago;   she  has  been 
told  that  he  is  a  teamster.    She  says  he  never  brought  much  money  home 
when  there,  but  ran  away  when  he  earned  any.    The  boy's  older  brother 
would  not  stay  at  home,  and  his  younger  brother  was  frequently  "in 
trouble."    The  boy's  sister,  twelve  years  old,  has  been  in  court  as  a  de- 
pendent and  is  now  in  an  institution  for  delinquent  girls;   so  that  none  of 
the  children  are  at  home.    The  mother  says  she  knows  nothing  about  her 
sons  and  does  not  want  the  little  girl  who  is  in  the  institution. 

67.  An  American  family  with  four  children.    The  mother  died  a 
good  many  years  ago.    The  father  was  a  very  decent  man  at  one  time,  a 
paper-hanger  and  in  business  for  himself;    but  the  mother  was  intem- 
perate and  he  gradually  became  demoralized,  and  since  her  death  has 
"gone  to  the  bad."    The  home  is  a  very  poor,  untidy  apartment  of  three 
rooms.     The  father  had  two  different  women  living  with  him  after  the 
mother  died,  and  one  of  them  had  a  child,  who  has  been  kept  in  the  family. 
A  sister  younger  than  this  boy  is  probably  immoral,  and  the  younger 
brother  is  in  an  institution  for  dependent  boys.    At  the  age  of  fifteen  this 
boy  was  brought  into  court  charged  with  stealing.     He,  with  five  other 
boys,  had  stolen  a  horse  and  buggy  and  driven  twenty-five  miles  out  of 
the  city.     He  was  put  on  probation.    The  probation  officer  tried  to  per- 
suade the  father  to  send  the  children  to  his  family  in  another  state,  but 
he  was  unwilling  to  do  so.    She  once  brought  the  whole  family  into  court 
on  account  of  the.conditions  under  which  they  were  living.    The  boy  seems 
to  be  good  in  spite  of  bad  home  conditions.     He  has  been  working  with 
his  father  as  a  paper-hanger,  and  his  father  keeps  all  that  he  earns. 

297 


THE    DELINQUENT   CHILD   AND   THE    HOME 

School  Statement. — I  am  20  years  old.  I  left  school  when  I  was  14. 
I  was  then  in  the  7  grade.  I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was  6  years 
old.  The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are  reading 
writting  and  spelling  because  /  think  I  could  get  better  work. 

68.  A  Russian-Jewish   family  with  five  children,   all   at   home, 
and  all  but  one  at  work.    The  father  was  twenty-four  and  the  mother 
twenty-three  at  the  time  of  marriage,  and  they  both  had  immigrated  a 
year  or  two  before.    The  father  was  a  peddler,  but  he  deserted  several 
years  ago.   The  children,  however,  are  able  to  support  the  family  so  that 
the  mother,  who  is  a  shiftless  and  scolding  woman,  does  not  work.    One 
sister  is  said  to  be  very  idle  and  worthless,  but  at  times  she  works  in  a 
department  store.    The  family  had  assistance  at  one  time  from  a  charit- 
able society.    The  home  of  three  rooms  in  a  basement  is  dark,  damp, 
crowded,  dirty  and  poorly  furnished.    At  the  age  of  fifteen  this  boy  was 
brought  into  court  as  incorrigible.    He  did  nothing  but  loiter  around, 
drink  beer,  and  smoke.    He  was  committed  to  the  John  Worthy  School. 
When  released  from  the  John  Worthy  School  he  was  put  under  the  care  of 
a  probation  officer.    The  officer  went  to  the  house  every  three  weeks.    She 
was  always  severe  and  firm  with  the  boy,  but  the  mother  shielded  him  so 
that  the  officer  could  do  nothing  with  him.    The  mother  says  that  the  boy 
was  always  angry  when  he  heard  that  the  officer  had  been  at  the  house. 
The  officer  says  that  the  whole  family  is  lazy  and  shiftless,  but  she  believes 
that  the  boy  has  improved.    The  mother  thinks  that  the  boy  was  dealt 
with  very  unjustly  by  the  court  and  that  he  should  never  have  been  sent 
away.    The  boy  has  worked  in  several  different  places.    He  was  at  first 
an  errand  boy,  later  he  tried  "teaming"  for  different  firms,  and  he  then 
worked  in  a  picture-frame  factory  for  ten  months.    He  is  now  driving  a 
wagon  for  a  clothing  store. 

School  Statement. — I  am  ij  years  old.  I  left  school  when  I  was — . 
I  was  then  in  the  6  grad  grade.  I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was  7  years 

old.     The  studies  which  have  helped  me  to  earn  money  are Nothing 

help  me  because  /  did  ne  it  in  my  work. 

69.  A  colored  family  with  six  children,  four  of  whom  are  now 
living  away  from  home.    The  mother  was  thirteen  years  old  and  the  father 
seventeen  when  they  were  married.    The  father  is  a  teamster,  and  the 
mother  keeps  a  low  rooming-house  of  seventeen  rooms,  which  is  filthy 
and  dilapidated  beyond  description.     They  live  in  a  neighborhood  of  low 
saloons  and  dives,  and  both  parents  drink.    The  boy,  who  is  a  good  worker, 
is  now  employed  in  the  stockyards,  earning  $6.00  a  week.     His  teacher 
speaks  well  of  him  and  so  does  the  probation  officer.    The  boy  was  brought 
into  court  when  he  was  thirteen,  charged  with  disorderly  conduct, — he  and 
another  boy  were  accused  of  stealing  chickens.    He  was  put  on  probation. 
The  mother  says  bad  friends,  "Italians,"  got  the  boy  in  trouble  and  that 
the  probation  officer  was  good  for  him  because  she  kept  him  "scared  up." 

School  Statement. — I  am  77  years  old.  I  left  school  when  I  was 
16.  I  was  then  in  the  4  grade.  I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was  12 
years  old.  The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are 
Reddy  helped  me  best  because  /  can  read  a  new  paper. 

298 


FAMILY  PARAGRAPHS  RELATING  TO  BOYS 

70.  An   American   family    (probably    Irish-American)    with   six 
children.    One  of  the  children  is  married;   one  girl  is  in  a  school  for  de- 
pendent girls;    and  this  boy  is  in  the  army.     The  father  is  a  fireman 
earning  "good  money,"  and  he  is  steady,  hardworking,  and  respectable. 
The  home  is  well  furnished  but  dirty  and  disorderly.    The  mother  is  a 
drinking,  quarrelsome  woman  who  has  a  bad  name  in  the  neighborhood, 
and  the  children  are  all  said  to  be  "wild."    The  father  himself  put  the 
one  daughter  in  a  school  for  delinquent  girls  when  she  was  eighteen.    At 
the  age  of  fifteen  this  boy,  with  two  other  boys,  was  brought  into  court 
by  a  police  officer,  accused  of  stealing  two  grain  doors  from  the  railroad. 
He  was  put  on  probation  under  the  care  of  a  police  officer,  who  saw  him 
only  a  few  times.     The  officer  says  that  the  mother's  bad  health  was 
responsible  for  the  boy's  delinquency.    The  boy  worked  for  a  time  as  a 
teamster  and  usually  gave  his  mother  his  pay,  but  he  has  now  joined  the 
army. 

71.  A  German  family  with  five  children,  two  of  whom  are  dead. 
The  boy  is  the  youngest  child.    The  father  was  twenty-four  and  the  mother 
twenty-two  when  they  were  married.    The  mother  had  been  in  this  country 
only  one  year,  but  the  father  had  come  over  when  he  was  a  child.    The 
father,  who  died  of  pneumonia  not  long  ago,  was  a  carpenter,  and  a  cook 
on  a  lake  boat,  and  finally  the  manager  of  a  pleasure  boat.    He  was  a  man 
of  bad  habits  and,  while  he  lived,  there  was  much  quarreling  in  the 
home,  and  his  influence  on  the  children  was  bad.    As  his  earnings  were  very 
uncertain,  the  mother  had  to  take  in  washing;  she  still  washes  and  earns 
about  $5.00  a  week.    She  is  a  good,  industrious  woman  and  keeps  the 
home  neat  and  cheerful.    When  this  boy  was  twelve  years  old,  he  and 
another  boy  were  brought  into  court,  charged  with  stealing  grain  doors 
valued  at  70  cents  from  the  railroad;   he  was  put  on  probation.    Within 
a  year  he  was  brought  in  again  on  the  charge  of  entering  the  basement  of 
a  church   and   stealing  manual   training  tools  and  printing  type,  and 
was  again  put  on  probation.    He  has  been  under  the  care  of  four  differ- 
ent probation  officers.    The  last  officer  says  she  went   to  see  the  boy 
once  a  month  and  the  mother  gave  her  full  control  over  the  child,  but  the 
father's  influence  was  bad.    The  mother  believes  that  probation  officers 
are  very  necessary.    The  boy  has  greatly  improved  and  has  been  given  an 
honorable  release.     The  mother  says  he  is  not  a  bad  boy,  but  "he  is 
such  a  good-hearted  fool  of  a  sheep  that  he  would  follow  any  one  any- 
where."    He  has  worked  two  years  as  a  wagon  boy  for  a  department 
store  and  is  now  driving  a  milk  wagon.    The  youngest  brother  is  a  ward 
of  the  court  and  is  said  to  have  decided  criminal  tendencies;   an  older 
brother  was  fined  $7.00  for  putting  caps  on  street-car  tracks. 

72.  A  very  low-grade  Irish  family  with  three  boys,  the  eldest  of 
whom  died  of  blood-poisoning.    The  father  was  seventeen  when  he  came 
to  America,  and  the  mother  was  nine;    the  father  was  twenty-five,  the 
mother  twenty-seven,  when  they  were  married.     The  father  is  a  day 
laborer  and  has  never  earned  good  wages.    He,  the  mother,  and  an  aunt 
who  lives  with  them,  all  drink.     The  father  has  been  in  the  House  of 
Correction.    The  mother  sells  papers  and  frequents  saloons.    When  this 
boy  was  fifteen  and  in  the  sixth  grade  in  public  school,  he  was  brought 

299 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

into  court  for  throwing  stones  at  a  car,  and  put  on  probation.  But 
within  two  months  he  was  brought  into  court  again  for  throwing  stones 
at  a  Jewish  peddler.  This  time  he  was  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School 
for  a  year.  The  boy  is  the  father  of  an  illegitimate  child  whose  mother 
he  has  now  married.  He  has  never  done  anything  but  odd  jobs  and  is  now 
out  of  work,  living  in  a  house  for  which  he  pays  no  rent,  and  getting 
coal  from  the  county. 

School  Statement. — I  am  21  years  old.    I  left  school  when  I  was  75. 
I  was  then  in  the  6  grade.    I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was  6  years  old. 

The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are because 

/  have  been  labor  and  bad  not  used  any  Redding  or  Riling  or  Ritmitcb. 

73.  An  exceptionally  low-grade  Russian-Jewish  family  with  four 
children,  three  boys  and  a  girl.    The  mother  was  married  first  at  twenty- 
one  and,  after  the  father's  death,  married  again,  at  thirty-seven,  a  man  of 
the  same  age.    Both  the  mother  and  the  stepfather  were  foreign  born,  and 
both  were  immoral.    The  home  has  always  been  very  bad  indeed.    The 
mother  was  burned  to  death  and  the  stepfather  abandoned  the  family,  after 
criminally  assaulting  his  stepdaughter,  who  is  now  in  an  institution  for 
delinquent  girls.    The  oldest  boy  is  a  delinquent  and  in  an  institution; 
the  youngest,  who  is  now  in  an  orphan  asylum,  has  bad  moral  habits. 
This  boy  has  been  in  two  different  institutions  for  dependent  boys  and  in 
the  Parental  School.    When  he  was  nine  he  was  brought  into  court  as  an 
incorrigible;    his  mother  could  not  keep  him  off  the  streets  nor  from 
flipping  cars;  he  was  then  put  on  probation.    The  next  year,  when  he  was 
ten,  he  was  brought  in  as  a  dependent  and  sent  to  an  institution  for  depen- 
dent boys.    The  following  year  he  was  again  brought  in  as  incorrigible, 
his  friends  saying  they  could  not  control  him;  he  was  put  on  probation. 
When  he  was  twelve  he  was  brought  in  again  as  incorrigible,  and  was  this 
time  committed  to  another  institution  for  dependent  boys.     The  boy 
appears  to  be  rather  dependent  than  delinquent.    He  has  been  under  the 
care  of  two  different  probation  officers.    The  last  officer  says  she  visited 
the  home  frequently.     She  says  the  principal  of  the  school  co-operated 
with  her  but  she  had  no  help  from  the  parents.    The  officer  says  this 
was  one  of  her  "hardest  cases."    After  the  mother's  death  the  boy  had 
at  least  half  a  dozen  guardians,  each  interfering  with  the  others  and  with 
the  officer,  and  as  a  result  the  boy  made  little  progress.    The  officer  twice 
secured  positions  for  the  boy  but  he  held  them  a  very  short  time. 

VIII.     VERY  POOR,  DIRTY,  OR  CROWDED  HOMES 

74.  A  German  family  with  twelve  children,  five  of  whom  died  in 
infancy.     The  parents  were  married  when  the  father  was  thirty-seven 
and  the  mother  twenty-two,  and  they  both  immigrated  a  few  years 
earlier.    The  family,  who  have  always  been  desperately  poor,  have  lived 
for  eleven  years  in  a  basement  flat  of  four  rooms,  entirely  below  the  level  of 
the  street.     The  rooms  are  dark  and  damp,  and  the  family  have  almost  no 
furniture.     The  father  is  an  unskilled  laborer  whose  frequent  "drunks" 
cause  him  to  lose  positions  rapidly.    He  has  not  had  "a  steady  job"  for  years, 
but  now  has  a  little  work  in  a  furniture  shop  at  very  low  wages.     The 

300 


FAMILY  PARAGRAPHS  RELATING  TO  BOYS 

mother  is  said  to  be  good-natured  and  shiftless.  She  can  speak  no  English 
although  she  has  been  here  twenty-five  years.  The  boy  left  school  when 
twelve  years  old.  He  did  not  like  school  and  has  not  found  any  position 
which  suited  him.  His  parents  claim  to  be  fond  of  him,  but  the  mother 
says,  "If  he  was  only  dead  and  buried,  we  could  say,  'Well,  anyway,  I 
know  where  he  is.'"  The  family  have  received  aid  from  the  county  and 
from  one  of  the  settlements.  The  boy  was  brought  into  court  at  the 
age  of  fourteen  for  stealing  a  horse  from  a  pasture  and  trying  to  sell  it 
for  $3.00;  the  case  was  dismissed.  Two  weeks  later  he  was  arrested 
in  the  act  of  stealing  small  articles  from  a  dry  goods  store.  He  was  sent 
to  the  John  Worthy  School  for  two  months,  when  he  was  released  to  leave 
the  city  and  go  on  a  farm.  He  was  never  under  the  care  of  a  probation 
officer.  He  worked  in  a  printing  shop  for  a  year  earning  $6.00  a  week, 
and  on  a  farm  for  half  a  year  for  his  board.  His  mother  knows  that  he 
has  had  several  other  positions,  but  does  not  remember  what  they  were. 

75.  An  Italian  family  of  nine  children,  of  whom  two  are  dead  and 
one  is  an  epileptic.    The  parents  were  married  when  the  father  was  twenty- 
seven  and  the  mother  sixteen,  and  they  came  to  this  country  about  a 
year  later.    The  mother  speaks  no  English.    They  have  a  very  wretched 
home  of  three  rooms,  dirty  and  miserably  furnished;    and  the  mother 
and  children  are  dirty  and  half-clad.    The  father  is  a  street-sweeper;  one 
sister  works  in  a  date  shop;    the  two  oldest  boys,  aged  seventeen  and 
twenty,  are  not  working  now,  but  one  of  them  used  to  help  his  father 
keep  a  "shine  stand."    This  boy  was  brought  into  court  at  the  age  of 
eleven  on  the  charge  of  incorrigibility,    He  ran  away  from  home,  stole 
money  from  his  mother,  and  his  parents  said  that  they  could  not  control 
him.     He  was  committed  to  the  John  Worthy  School,  where  he  spent 
twelve  months.    Very  soon  after  his  release,  at  the  age  of  twelve,  he  was 
in  court  again  on  the  charge  of  larceny,  but  the  case  was  dismissed.    At 
this  time  he  was  still  in  the  second  grade  at  school.    At  the  age  of  thir- 
teen he  was  again  brought  in  on  the  charge  of  truancy,  and  was  com- 
mitted to  the  Chicago  Parental  School. 

76.  An    Irish   family   with   seven   children.     The   parents   were 
foreign  born,  but  their  age  at  immigration  could  not  be  learned.    They 
have  a  very  untidy,  shiftless,  crowded  home.     Both  father  and  mother 
constantly  drink  to  excess.    The  father  is  a  teamster  but  he  is  in  poor 
health.    The  mother  complains  because  one  of  the  boys  has  brought  his 
wife  and  child  home  to  "live  off  the  family."    There  are  now  eleven  per- 
sons living  in  one  apartment  of  three  rooms.    When  this  boy  was  eight 
years  old,  he  was  brought  into  court  with  two  other  boys  for  breaking 
into  a  grocery  store.    The  court  record  shows  that  he  was  staying  away 
from  home  and  sleeping  out  nights;    he  was  sent  to  the  John  Worthy 
School  for  four  months.    When  he  was  nine,  he  was  found  sleeping  under  a 
house  and  was  brought  into  court  and  again  sent  to  the  John  Worthy 
School  for  ten  months.    He  is  not  doing  very  well  now.    He  was  a  mes- 
senger at  the  stockyards  for  a  time,  but  is  now  out  of  work.    The  mother 
says  she  hates  the  court  and  everybody  connected  with  it  except  the 
probation  officer.    The  officer  says  the  boy  has  improved  but  does  not 

301 


THE    DELINQUENT   CHILD   AND   THE    HOME 

have  any  help  at  home  from  his  parents.  "The  parents  needed  more 
care  than  the  child."  The  officer  called  at  the  home  every  week.  She 
secured  work  for  different  members  of  the  family  and  tried  to  help  them 
in  other  ways. 

77.  A  Polish  family  with  five  children,  all  of  whom  are  still  at 
home.    The  mother  of  these  children  is  the  father's  second  wife.     Both 
parents  came  to  this  country  after  they  were  thirty  and  they  speak  very 
little  English.    The  family  have  a  clean  but  very  poor  home  in  a  dilapi- 
dated tenement,   which   is  damp  because  of  the  defective  plumbing. 
The  other  people  in  the  house  are  disreputable,  drinking  people.     The 
yard  is  a  sort  of  dump;    the  street,  which  has  no  sidewalk,  is  unpaved; 
and  there  are  pools  of  standing  water  about.    The  father  does  not  work 
and  drinks  a  good  deal.     Two  older  brothers  work  in  the  stockyards. 
One  of  the  children  by  a  former  wife  has  been  sent  to  an  institution  for 
dependent  children.    This  boy,  who  still  goes  to  school,  is  said  to  be  men- 
tally deficient  and  unable  to  learn.     The  father  is  very  mean  to  the  chil- 
dren and  anxious  to  have  them  work  as  early  as  they  can.    At  the  age  of 
twelve,  this  boy  was  brought  into  court,  charged  with  breaking  seals  on 
freight  cars  and  stealing  merchandise;   he  was  sent  to  the  John  Worthy 
School.    At  the  age  of  fourteen  he  was  brought  in  again  as  incorrigible; 
he  would  not  go  to  school,  and  had  a  bad  influence  on  his  brothers.     He 
was  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School  and  later  paroled.    The  boy  was 
under  the  care  of  a  probation  officer  but  made  no  progress.    The  officer 
says  that  the  teacher  and  the  mother  co-operated  "heartily"  but  the 
father  "only  scolded." 

78.  A  Russian-Jewish  family  with  eleven  children.     The  father 
was  eighteen  and  the  mother  fifteen  when  they  were  married,  and  they 
immigrated  ten  years  later.     The  mother  speaks  very  little  English. 
The  father,  who  is  a  glazier,  but  who  earns  very  low  wages,  used  to  drink 
a  great  deal  but  has  better  habits  now.    The  family  live  in  a  very  dirty, 
unsanitary  apartment  of  six  rooms,  but,  as  three  rooms  are  rented,  they 
really  have  only  three  rooms  for  a  family  of  twelve.    One  of  the  girls  was 
married  when  fifteen  years  old  and  is  now  insane.    When  this  boy  was 
fifteen  he  was  brought  into  court  for  stealing  property  worth  $18.     He 
was  out  of  work  at  the  time  and  evidently  was  trying  to  make  money  by 
stealing  things  and  selling  them.     He  was  put  on  probation  and  has  not 
been  in  court  again.    He  has  had  various  odd  jobs  and  claims  to  have  once 
saved  $100,  which  his  father  took  and  did  not  repay.    He  left  home  once 
and  went  to  Denver  but  returned  because  the  family  wrote  that  they 
would  starve  if  he  did  not  come  back  and  help  to  support  them.    He  is  now 
working  in  a  printing  office. 

School  Statement. — I  am  2/  years  old.    I  left  school  when  I  was  14. 
I  was  then  in  the  5  grade.    I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was  7  years  old. 

The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are-; Is  pinting 

and  worked  for  $2^  a  week  for  2  years.  [Boy  told  the  investigator  nothing 
had  helped  him.] 

79.  A  German  family  with  five  children.     The  father,  who  died 
eight  years  ago,  owned  a  coal  yard,  which  the  mother  has  kept  and  man- 

302 


FAMILY  PARAGRAPHS  RELATING  TO  BOYS 

aged  since  his  death.  The  family  has  a  very  unsavory  reputation  in  the 
neighborhood.  The  eldest  daughter,  who  is  a  domestic  servant  and  is 
away  from  home,  had  an  illegitimate  child,  whom  she  left  with  her  mother. 
This  boy  and  his  older  brother  used  to  be  bad  and  shiftless,  but  they  are 
now  much  improved  and  are  getting  to  be  industrious.  The  family  own 
their  own  home  of  four  rooms,  but  it  is  very  bare,  in  filthy  condition,  and 
greatly  neglected.  They  live  in  an  extremely  poor  neighborhood;  all  the 
sewers  are  open;  the  house  is  very  near  the  railroad  tracks;  the  sidewalks 
and  fences  are  broken;  the  yard  is  filled  with  refuse;  and  everything  on 
the  premises  shows  neglect  of  long  standing.  The  mother  has  been 
arrested  twice  for  keeping  the  children  out  of  school  for  insufficient 
reasons,  and  a  younger  boy  was  recently  arrested  for  breaking  into  a  car. 
At  the  age  of  twelve  this  boy  was  brought  into  court  charged  with  break- 
ing into  a  car  on  the  railroad  and  stealing  four  pairs  of  shoes;  he  was 
committed  to  the  John  Worthy  School  for  five  months.  He  now  drives  a 
coal  wagon  and  helps  manage  the  coal  yard.  The  mother  says  that  he 
plays  cards  for  money  in  saloons  and  other  places. 

80.  An  Italian  family  with  ten  children,  of  whom  six  are  dead. 
The  parents  were  married  at  the  ages  of  twenty-three  and  nineteen 
and  came  to  this  country  four  years  later.    The  father  is  a  laborer,  earn- 
ing $9.00  a  week.     They  have  a  very  poor  home,  two  rooms  in  an  old 
tenement,  in  a  poor  neighborhood  near  the  tracks  and  the  river.     The 
father  and  mother  speak  very  little  English.    When  the  boy  was  thirteen, 
he  was  brought  into  court  for  running  away,  loitering  in  news  alleys,  and 
sleeping  in  hallways;  he  was  put  on  probation.    Within  a  few  months  he 
was  brought  in  again,  charged  with  vagrancy;   it  was  said  that  he  loafed 
and  frequented  saloons  and  questionable  places;   he  was  then  sent  to  the 
John  Worthy  School.     In  spite  of  the  efforts  of  the  parents,  the  school, 
and  the  probation  officer,  the  boy  did  not  improve.    The  officer  visited 
either  the  home  or  the  school  once  a  week.    When  the  boy  was  not  in 
institutions,  he  reported  to  the  officer  "occasionally."    The  officer  was 
never  very  hopeful  of  the  boy,  because  the  home  was  so  miserable  and  the 
parents  so  unintelligent.    At  the  age  of  seventeen  he  was  brought  in  on 
the  charge  of  stealing  an  overcoat  because  he  had  not  enough  to  pay  for 
it,  and  this  time  he  was  sent  to  the  state  reformatory  at  Pontiac.    The 
mother  says  that  the  boy  stole  because  he  was  poor,  and  was  sent  to  Pon- 
tiac for  taking  a  five-dollar  overcoat  that  he  needed.     The  probation 
officer  thinks  that  this  sentence  is  unjust,  but  she  believes  the  boy  to  be  a 
degenerate.     He  has  a  tendency  "to  rove,"  and  will  not  work  long  at 
anything.    He  has  earned  very  little  but  has  given  all  he  earned  to  his 
mother. 

8 1.  A  Bohemian  family  with  eight  children.     Nothing  is  known 
of  the  boy's  own  father.     The  stepfather  deserted  the  family,  and  the 
mother  is  very  ignorant  and  incapable.     The  boy  and  an  older  brother 
now  work  in  the  stockyards  and  support  the  family.    A  sister,  who  is  a 
graduate  of  the  state  school  for  the  blind,  is  teaching.    The  family  used  to 
live  in  a  very  poor,  damp,  dark  basement  apartment.    At  one  time  when 
the  mother  was  ill  and  would  not  go  to  the  hospital,  no  provision  was 
made  for  caring  for  the  children  and  this  boy  began  to  loaf  about  the 

303 


THE   DELINQUENT   CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 

streets  with  older  boys  who  led  him  into  trouble.  A  neighboring  settle- 
ment has  done  much  to  improve  conditions  in  the  home  and  the  family 
has  been  enabled  to  move  to  a  decent,  light  cottage  in  a  good  neighborhood. 
When  this  boy  was  twelve  he  was  brought  into  court,  charged  with  stealing 
from  a  store  shoe  polish  worth  $50;  he  was  put  on  probation.  Within  a 
year  he  was  brought  in  again,  charged  with  stealing  a  bicycle,  and  this 
time  was  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School  for  seven  months.  He  has 
been  under  the  care  of  two  different  probation  officers.  The  last  officer 
thought  the  mother  was  so  ignorant  that  it  was  almost  hopeless  to 
appeal  to  her,  but  the  older  boys  were  helpful.  The  officer  called  at  the 
home  frequently,  and  the  boy  reported  every  week  at  first.  The  officer 
interested  a  society  of  ladies  in  the  family,  and  they  furnished  clothes  for 
the  children.  The  mother  says  the  boy  does  not  think  of  the  officer  as 
anything  but  a  friend  because  she  never  reminds  him  of  her  connection 
with  the  court.  He  is  undersized  which  makes  it  difficult  for  him  to  secure 
employment  but  he  has  tried  to  earn  money  since  he  was  eleven,  and 
always  gives  his  mother  his  wages. 

82.  A  Polish  family  with  nine  children,  one  of  whom  is  dead.    The 
parents  were  married  when  the  father  was  nineteen  and  the  mother  six- 
teen.   They  are  both  very  foreign,  although  the  father  came  to  this  country 
at  the  age  of  seven  and  the  mother  was  born  here.    The  father  can  read 
and  write  but  little  English;  the  mother  not  at  all.    They  are  a  low-grade 
family  with  an  extremely  dirty  home  and  dirty,  ragged  children.  The  father 
drinks  and  is  very  harsh  and  unkind.    He  is  a  teamster,  but  is  out  of  work  a 
great  deal.    In  spite  of  this  they  are  trying  to  buy  the  tenement  in  which 
they  live,  but  it  is  mortgaged  for  $2500.    An  older  brother  and  sister  of  this 
boy  are  wards  of  the  court.    At  the  age  of  twelve  this  boy  was  brought 
into  court  as  incorrigible;   he  would  not  attend  school,  his  parents  could 
not  control  him,  and  he  stayed  away  from  home;   he  was  sent  to  an  in- 
stitution for  dependent  boys.    Within  a  year  he  was  brought  in  again  on 
the  same  charge  and  was  returned  to  the  same  institution;   he  ran  away 
from  the  institution  and  was  then  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School.    He 
was  brought  into  court  again,  at  the  age  of  fourteen,  on  the  charge  of 
disorderly  conduct;  he  cut  lead  pipes  from  a  laundry,  stole  in  his  neighbor- 
hood, and  lived  away  from  home  continually;    he  was  again  sent  to  the 
John  Worthy  School,  where  he  is  now.    The  boy  was  first  paroled  to  a 
police  officer  then  to  a  probation  officer,  and  last  to  a  volunteer  officer. 
The  officers  did  everything  they  could  for  the  boy,  but  he  did  not  improve. 
One  of  them  says  the  boy  is  a  "dope  fiend,"  and  another  thinks  that  he 
is  "not  quite  right."    The  mother  says  that  the  boy  is  "off  in  his  mind" 
and  that  the  father's  treatment  has  made  him  worse. 

83.  These  two  boys  belong  to  a  German  family  with  five  children. 
When  married,  the  father  was  twenty-four  and  the  mother  twenty-two. 
The  father  is  a  cabinet-maker  and  used  to  earn  $12  a  week,  but  is  crippled 
with  rheumatism  now  and  unable  to  work.     The  mother  earns  a  little 
by  taking  in  washing.    She  speaks  very  little  English  although  she  came 
to  this  country  when  she  was  twelve.    The  home  of  five  rooms  is  bare 
and  poor  and  in  an  extremely  poor  neighborhood.    The  younger  of  these 
boys  is  epileptic  and  can  seldom  find  work  so  that  the  older  boy  is  prac- 

304 


FAMILY  PARAGRAPHS  RELATING  TO  BOYS 

tically  the  support  of  the  family.  These  two  boys,  with  another  boy,  first 
came  into  court  at  the  ages  of  twelve  and  fifteen  for  breaking  windows. 
The  epileptic  boy  had  had  trouble  in  school  and  wanted  to  "pay  teacher 
back"  by  throwing  stones  at  the  windows.  They  were  put  on  probation. 
Within  a  year  the  epileptic  boy  was  brought  into  court  again  for  keep- 
ing bad  company  and  for  truancy.  He  was  sent  to  a  children's  hospital 
society  for  treatment  and  was  then  put  on  probation.  The  probation 
officer  who  had  charge  of  the  boys  visited  the  home  every  week  for  a  year 
and  tried  to  keep  the  epileptic  boy  under  treatment  and  succeeded  in 
keeping  him  at  a  hospital  for  six  weeks.  The  older  boy  works  steadily 
and  gives  all  he  earns  to  his  mother.  He  began  work  at  fourteen  as  an 
errand  boy  and  he  is  now  a  teamster,  earning  $10  a  week.  He  is  a  good 
worker  and  the  probation  officer  thinks  that  he  was  never  really  delin- 
quent,— only  mischievous. 

School  Statement. — I  am  ig  years  old.  I  left  school  when  I  was  /^. 
I  was  then  in  the  6  grade.  I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was  5  years  old. 
The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are  Arithmetic 
because  it  helps  me  out  in  my  paids. 

84.  An  Italian  family  with  five  children.    The  parents  were  married 
when  the  father  was  thirty  and  the  mother  twenty-three.     The  father 
immigrated  two  years  after  his  marriage,  and  the  mother  followed  him 
two  years  later.    Neither  the  father  nor  the  mother  can  speak  English. 
The  father  who  is  now  doing  gang  work  in  Montana  earns  about  $10 
a  week,  and  the  children  are  earning  $i  i,  but  they  are  likely  to  be  out  of 
work  at  any  time.     The  home  is  very  dirty  and  poor,  and  the  mother 
is  delicate.    This  boy   first  came  into  court  at   the  age  of  eleven   for 
stealing  a  purse  from  a  department   store;   he  was  put  on  probation. 
When  he  was  thirteen  he  came  into  court  again  because  he  had  been  one 
of  four  boys  to  rob  a  slot  machine.    He  was  again  put  on  probation  and 
has   been  doing  much   better  since.    The  probation  officer  visited  the 
family  two  or  three  times  a  week  at  first  and,  later,  two  or  three  times  a 
month.    While  in  school  the  boy  reported  to  the  officer  every  week,  but 
when  working,  only  once  a  month.    The  officer  provided  Christmas  dinners 
for  the  family,  sweaters  for  the  boys,  a  doctor  and  a  nurse  during  illness, 
and  food  and  fuel  for  two  winters.    He  also  took  the  boy  to  camp  one 
summer  and  got  him  several  "jobs."    The  parents  say  they  liked   the 
probation  officer  because  he  always  helped  them  out  of  their  troubles. 
The  boy  liked  to  report  at  the  officer's  home;  he  said  he  always  "had  such 
a  good  time  and  it  was  so  clean."    He  is  now  working  in  a  factory,  doing 
"odd  jobs"  and  earning  $4.00  a  week.    He  has  worked  at  several  places 
but  only  for  a  short  time  in  each  place. 

School  Statement. — I  left  school  when  I  was  75.  I  was  then  in  the 
4  grade.  I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was  9  years  old.  The  studies 
which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are  railroads  because  they  pay 
more. 

IX.     REPEATERS 

85.  An  Irish  family  with  eighteen  children,  eight  of  whom  are  dead. 
One  boy  is  married,  two  are  working,  and  there  are  three  children  in  school 

305 


THE    DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND   THE    HOME 

and  three  small  children  at  home.  The  parents  both  came  to  this  country 
when  they  were  about  fifteen  years  old,  and  were  married  when  the 
father  was  twenty-one  and  the  mother  seventeen.  The  mother  says 
the  father  was  a  teamster  for  one  firm  for  twenty  years  and  earned  $2.00 
a  day,  but  was  always  "very  stingy  with  the  family";  he  paid  for  rent 
and  coal  but  never  gave  her  enough  for  food  and  clothes.  The  father  is 
now  a  motorman.  The  mother  drinks,  cares  nothing  for  the  father, 
and  takes  no  interest  in  the  children.  The  home  of  seven  rooms,  which 
has  always  been  very  slovenly  and  crowded,  is  on  a  poor,  unpaved  street. 

This  boy  belonged  to  the  O Street  gang.    At  the  age  of  twelve  he  was 

brought  into  court,  charged  with  stealing  $50  from  his  mother;  he  was 
put  on  probation.  Within  a  year  he  was  brought  in  again,  charged  with 
stealing  a  watch  from  his  father,  and  was  sent  to  an  institution  for  depen- 
dent children.  At  the  age  of  thirteen  he  was  in  court  again,  charged  with 
incorrigibility;  he  attempted  to  steal  a  pair  of  overalls  and  the  next  day 
assaulted  the  owner  in  the  school  yard;  he  was  committed  to  the  John 
Worthy  School.  At  the  age  of  fourteen  he  was  brought  in  again  on  the 
charge  of  incorrigibility;  the  parents  asserted  that  he  was  beyond  their 
control,  that  he  ran  away  from  home,  that  he  carried  a  revolver,  and  that 
his  teacher  could  not  control  him;  he  was  again  committed  to  the  John 
Worthy  School,  where  he  remained  thirteen  months.  At  the  age  of  fifteen 
he  was  brought  in  once  more,  charged  with  holding  up  school  children 
and  taking  their  money  from  them;  he  was  sent  to  another  institution 
for  delinquent  boys.  He  was  at  different  times  under  the  care  of  a  police 
officer  and  two  probation  officers.  The  family  refused  to  co-operate 
with  all  of  these  officers,  and  the  mother  always  shielded  the  boy.  The 
last  officer  called  to  see  the  boy  about  once  a  month,  but  the  boy  refused 
to  report  to  the  officer.  The  officer  thinks  that  the  home  and  the  neighbor- 
hood caused  the  boy's  delinquency  and  that  there  is  no  hope  for  him. 
The  boy  has  worked  only  three  months  and  in  that  time  he  has  had 
three  positions.  He  never  "gave  in"  his  wages  of  his  own  accord;  so 
his  mother  collected  them. 

86.  An  Italian  family  with  five  children.  The  parents  were  married 
when  the  father  was  twenty-seven  and  the  mother  was  fifteen.  They  had 
both  been  in  this  country  several  years  then  but  the  mother  has  never 
learned  to  speak  more  than  a  very  little  English.  They  live  in  a  poor, 
dirty,  crowded  home  of  five  rooms,  which  they  own.  The  father  is  now 
working  on  the  city  sewer,  earning  good  wages.  The  mother  says  the 
boy  has  a  dreadful  temper  and  is  "craze  in  de  head."  He  has  had  a  bad 
record  in  school.  When  he  was  twelve,  he  was  brought  into  court,  charged 
with  assaulting  another  boy;  he  was  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School. 
Within  a  year  he  was  brought  in  again,  charged  with  stealing  gum  and 
candy  from  a  store;  he  was  again  committed  to  the  John  Worthy  School. 
At  the  age  of  thirteen  he  was  brought  in  again,  charged  with  stealing  from 
a  showcase  six  mufflers  valued  at  $3.00;  he  was  put  on  probation.  At 
the  age  of  fourteen  he  was  brought  in  again,  charged  with  disorderly 
conduct,  with  being  a  truant  from  school  and  with  shooting  craps;  he 
was  put  on  probation.  When  he  was  fifteen  years  old  he  was  brought  in  on 
the  charge  of  disorderly  conduct  for  loitering  in  poolrooms;  he  was  again 

306 


FAMILY  PARAGRAPHS  RELATING  TO  BOYS 

put  on  probation.  The  boy's  progress  under  probation  was  not  very 
favorable.  He  was  first  paroled  to  a  police  officer  and  later  to  three 
different  probation  officers.  The  last  officer  had  to  "keep  after  him" 
all  the  time.  At  first  he  called  every  day  at  the  home  and  the  school, 
and  made  repeated  efforts  to  hold  the  boy  to  his  promises,  but  he  was  never 
very  successful.  The  officer  took  the  boy  to  camp  one  summer.  The  boy 
has  worked  for  three  months  as  a  teamster  and  for  four  months  has 
played  in  the  band  at  one  of  the  amusement  parks. 

School  Statement. — I  am  16  years  old.  I  left  school  when  I  was  14. 
I  was  then  in  the  6  grade.  I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was  5  years 
old.  The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are  my 
reading  and  numbers  because  if  I  could  not  read  I  would  not  know  bow  to  get 
a  job. 

87.  A  colored  family  with  one  child.    At  marriage  the  father  was 
twenty-nine,  the  mother  twenty-four.    They  have  a  home  of  six  rooms, 
which  is  neat  and  clean,  and  they  are  said  to  be  quiet,  decent  people. 
The  father,  a  hardworking  man,  is  a  salesman,  earning  fairly  good  wages. 
The  mother  has  been  paralyzed  for  five  years,  and  the  grandmother  lives 
with  the  family  and  keeps  house.    At  one  time  the  mother  used  to  help 
support  the  family  by  working  out  but  she  is  no  longer  able  to  work.    At 
the  age  of  ten  the  boy  was  brought  into  court  on  a  truancy  charge,  and  was 
sent  to  the  Chicago  Parental  School.    A  year  and  a  half  later  he  again 
played  truant,  and  was  put  on  probation.    One  year  after  this  he  stole  a 
bicycle,  automobile  tire  and  lamp,  and  was  sent  to  the  John  Worthy 
School  for  one  year.    Six  months  after  his  release  he  broke  into  a  barn  and 
forced  open  a  trunk  containing  carpets  valued  at  $50.   He  was  hauling  away 
the  carpets  and  also  a  heating  stove,  when  he  was  arrested  and  returned 
to  the  John  Worthy  School,  where  he  is  at  the  present  time.     He  .was 
under  the  care  of  a  probation  officer  who  called  at  the  home  every  week 
or  two  and  found  the  mother  "anxious  to  help."    The  officer  secured  jobs 
for  the  boy,  but  he  would  not  work  and  seemed  confirmed  in  habits  of 
stealing  and  lying.    He  never  stayed  at  any  place  more  than  two  months. 
He  held  positions  as  an  elevator  boy,  wagon  boy  and  messenger  boy,  and 
was  allowed  to  keep  his  own  wages.    His  mother  says  that  he  is  dishonest 
and  lazy  and  that  he  gambles  and  smokes  and  has  not  improved  in  any 
way,  although  the  probation  officer  has  tried  to  help  him.    The  mother 
says  that  the  boy  liked  the  officer  and  reported  to  her  regularly. 

88.  A  German  family  with  eleven  children,  all  of  whom  are  still 
at  home  except  this  boy  who  has  run  away.    The  parents  never  mention 
him  and  say  they  are  trying  to  forget  him.    The  mother,  who  was  seven- 
teen when  she  was  married,  came  to  this  country  when  she  was  a  little 
girl,  and  the  father  immigrated  before  he  was  fifteen.     The  father  is  a 
butcher's  clerk,  earning  good  wages.    The  family  lived  in  a  good  home  but 
in  a  very  bad  neighborhood  during  the  period  when  the  boy  was  in  trouble. 
The  parents  finally  bought  a  home  in  a  quiet  neighborhood  in  order  to 
have  better  influences  about  the  boy,  but  it  was  too  late.    At  the  age  of 
fourteen  the  boy  was  brought  into  court  on  the  charge  of  stealing  a  bicycle 
and  then  selling  it  for  50  cents;   he  was  put  on  probation.    At  the  age  of 

307 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 

fifteen  he  was  again  brought  in  for  stealing  newspapers  in  front  of  stores; 
he  was  again  put  on  probation.  At  the  age  of  sixteen  he  was  brought  in 
as  incorrigible,  accused  of  stealing  from  a  vacant  building  lead  pipes  and 
plumbing  material  valued  at  $400;  he  'was  again  put  on  probation. 
He  has  worked  but  three  weeks  in  his  life.  He  was  paroled  to  a  police 
officer,  who  according  to  the  parents  "stood  by  the  family  through  all 
their  trials  with  the  boy."  The  parents  co-operated  with  the  officer  in 
all  his  efforts.  The  mother  seemed  to  think  the  officer  had  some  influence 
but  it  did  not  last.  The  boy  is  now  in  the  House  of  Correction  for  the 
second  time.  He  had  left  home  before  he  was  sent  there  last,  and  the 
parents  evidently  hope  he  will  never  come  home  again. 

89.  A  Danish  family  with  seven  children.    The  parents  were  mar- 
ried when  the  father  was  twenty-three  and   the  mother  twenty-one, 
and  they  immigrated  a  year  later.    The  mother  and  one  child  have 
died  of  tuberculosis,  and  the  father  now  has  this  disease.    The  father  is 
a  foreman  for  an  engineering  company  and  earns  good  wages.    The  family 
did  own  a  seven-room  cottage,  but  they  now  board.    The  mother  was  ill 
for  a  long  time,  and  the  boy  became  "wild";  the  father  was  always  hard 
on  him  and  thinks  him  a  "bad  lot."    At  the  age  of  twelve  he  was  brought 
into  court  on  the  charge  of  stealing;   he  had  stolen  $25  from  a  man  and 
$3  from  a  grocery  store;   he  was  committed  to  the  John  Worthy  School. 
At  the  age  of  thirteen  he  was  again  in  court  as  incorrigible;    he  was 
staying  away  from  home  weeks  at  a  time,  sleeping  in  barns;  he  was  again 
sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School.    At  the  age  of  fifteen  he  was  brought  in 
again  on  the  charge  of  breaking  into  a  freight  car  and  stealing  tobacco, 
three  bottles  of  bitters,  and  paper  napkins  valued  at  $6.00.    He  was  put 
on  probation.    At  the  age  of  fifteen  he  was  in  court  again  for  incorrigibility 
and  for  stealing;   he  broke  into  a  shed  and  stole  a  brass  valve  and  tools 
valued  at  $10.    He  was  sent  to  an  institution  for  delinquent  boys.    The 
boy  was  first  paroled  to  a  police  officer  and  then  to  a  special  probation 
officer.    The  police  officer  does  not  remember  the  boy.    The  special  officer 
visited  the  home  occasionally,  and  the  boy  reported  once  a  week.  The  officer 
found  the  boy  very  friendly,  and  the  sister  says  the  boy  liked  the  officer 
and  did  well  while  he  was  reporting  to  her. 

90.  An  Irish  family  of  six  children,  of  whom  this  boy  is  the  youngest. 
The  father  and  mother  were  both  over  thirty-five  when  they  left  Ireland; 
the  mother  was  nineteen  when  married.     They  are  a  very  respectable 
family  and  have  a  very  decent  home  of  six  rooms.    At  the  age  of  thirteen 
this  boy  was  brought  into  court  charged  with  stealing  $1.50;  at  school  he 
was  also  said  to  be  uncontrollable;   he  was  put  on  probation.    Within  a 
year  he  was  brought  in  again  on  the  charge  of  disorderly  conduct  and  not 
going  to  school ;  he  was  again  put  on  probation.    At  the  age  of  sixteen  he 
was  brought  in  again  on  the  charge  of  incorrigibility;    his  mother  said 
she  could  not  control  him  and  that  he  "slept  out";  he  was  again  put  on 
probation.    Within  a  year  he  was  brought  in  again  on  the  charge  of  steal- 
ing gloves,  an  overcoat,  and  money  from  an  express  company;   he  was 
for  the  fourth  time  put  on  probation.    He  was  brought  into  court  the  third 
time  within  a  year  on  the  charge  of  stealing  a  purse  containing  a  small  sum 
of  money,  and  this  time  he  was  sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School.    The 

308 


FAMILY  PARAGRAPHS  RELATING  TO  BOYS 

boy  and  the  police  officer  to  whom  he  was  paroled  were  on  very  good 
terms.  The  officer  called  whenever  he  passed  the  home  and  became  well 
acquainted  with  the  family,  but  the  mother  shielded  the  boy  from  him. 
The  officer  says  the  boy  was  "a  deep  schemer,"  was  sly,  and  unwilling  to 
work.  The  officer  tried  to  persuade  him  to  find  a  job  and  keep  it.  The 
family  think  that  the  boy  is  all  right  now.  They  say  he  is  ashamed  of 
his  record  and  although  he  has  had  no  job  since  he  came  from  the  John 
Worthy  School,  he  is  looking  for  one.  Before  this  he  worked  for  a  time  as  an 
errand  boy  earning  $4.00  a  week  and  later  in  a  box  factory  where  he  earned 
more. 

School  Statement. — I  am  77  years  old.  I  left  school  when  I  was  14. 
I  was  then  in  the  7  grade.  I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was  6  years 
old.  The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are  reading 
and  aritbemitic  because  if  you  were  looking  for  a  job  who  could  read  the 
want  ads  aritbemitic  helps  in  counting  your  pay. 

91.  A  Bohemian  family  of  five  children,  of  whom  this  boy  is  the 
eldest.    The  father  came  to  this  country  when  a  child;  the  mother  when 
twenty-two.     They  were  married  when  both  were  twenty-four.     The 
father  speaks  English  fairly  well  but  the  mother  very  poorly.    They  have 
a  very  poor,  bare,  crowded  home  of  four  rooms,  which  the  mother  keeps 
neat  and  clean,  although  she  does  home  finishing.   The  father  is  a  butcher, 
and  used  to  work  in  the  stockyards,  but  he  drinks,  and  does  not  work  very 
steadily  now.     This  boy  was  brought  into  court  at  the  age  of  ten  by  a 
police  officer,  charged  with  stealing;    he  and  two  other  boys  had  stolen 
several  pocketbooks,  ranging  in  value  from  95  cents  to  $66;  he  was  sent  to 
the  John  Worthy  School.    At  the  age  of  thirteen  he  was  brought  in  again, 
charged  with  stealing  a  Leghorn  chicken  valued  at  $15,  and  a  China  duck; 
he  was  put  on  probation.    Within  a  year  he  was  in  court  again,  charged 
with  disorderly  conduct;  he  was  accused  of  prowling  around  the  school 
house,  throwing  snowballs  at  children,  and  stealing  small  articles  in  school; 
he  was  again  committed  to  the  John  Worthy  School.    At  the  age  of  four- 
teen he  was  brought  into  court  again  on  the  charge  of  stealing;  he  was  said 
to  be  implicated  in  stealing  a  pair  of  trousers  from  a  clothing  store;  he 
was  put  on  probation.    He  has  spent  fourteen  months  in  the  John  Worthy 
School.    He  is  just  past  fourteen,  and  is  working  as  a  wagon  boy  for  a 
department  store.    The  mother  and  the  boy  are  good  friends  and  the  boy 
"gives  in"  his  wages  regularly.    The  boy  has  been  under  the  care  of  two 
police  officers  and  three  probation  officers.    The  last  officer  says  she  has  no 
faith  in  the  boy  but  does  not  permit  him  to  know  it.    The  parents  are 
willing  to  co-operate  but  are  unable  to  control  the  boy  who  is  "one  of  the 
toughest  boys  in  the  neighborhood  and  an  awful  liar." 

92.  A  German-Jewish  family  with  four  children.     The  father  and 
mother  were  both  twenty-four  years  old  when  they  were  married,  and 
they  came  to  this  country  about  twenty  years  ago.    Although  the  father 
has  a  good  business,  the  family  live  in  a  very  bad  neighborhood,  in  four 
rooms  back  of  their  store.    The  home  is  dirty  but  comfortably  furnished. 
The  father  is  said  to  "care  for  nothing  but  making  money,"  and  he  is  so 
stern  that  the  boys  are  afraid  of  him.    The  mother  is  not  very  strong,  and 
is  always  too  tired  to  take  much  care  of  the  children.    An  older  brother  is 

21  309 


THE    DELINQUENT   CHILD   AND   THE    HOME 

not  very  bright,  and  is  so  nervous  that,  according  to  the  mother,  the 
teacher  will  not  allow  him  to  attend  school.  This  boy  has  always  hated 
school  and  has  always  wanted  to  work  and  earn  money.  When  he  was 
nine  years  old,  he  was  brought  into  court  for  playing  truant,  and  was  sent 
to  the  Chicago  Parental  School.  Not  quite  two  years  later,  he  was 
brought  in  on  the  same  charge  and  returned  to  the  Parental  School.  Three 
months  later  he  was  charged  with  stealing;  he  and  three  other  boys  broke 
into  a  store  and  took  groceries  and  confectionery  valued  at  $45;  he  was 
then  put  on  probation.  One  year  and  five  months  later  he  was  brought 
into  court  as  incorrigible;  his  parents  said  they  could  not  control  him  and 
that  he  was  thoroughly  unreliable;  he  was  sent  to  the  John  Worthy 
School,  where  he  is  now.  He  was  under  the  care  of  a  probation  officer 
who  called  at  the  home  once  a  month  and  found  the  parents  willing  to 
do  anything  she  asked,  but  the  boy  only  made  trouble  at  home  and  at 
school,  and  "it  seemed  nothing  could  be  done  for  him."  The  mother 
speaks  well  of  the  officer's  services. 

93.  This  boy  was  adopted  when  a  baby  and  is  the  only  child  in  the 
family.    His  foster-parents  are  both  American.     His  foster-mother  says 
he  fell  when  a  little  boy  and  hurt  his  head,  and  she  thinks  it  "weakened 
his  mind,"  and  that  this  accounts  for  his  bad  behavior.    He  is  home  only 
part  of  the  time  and  goes  "bumming"  when  he  is  there.    There  is  a  great 
deal  of  hostility  between  him  and  his  foster-parents.    The  foster-father 
is  a  "politician"  and  always  has  good  jobs,  and  they  have  a  neat,  attrac- 
tive home  of  four  rooms.    At  the  age  of  fourteen  the  boy  was  brought  into 
court  by  a  policeman  as  incorrigible;  he  was  charged  with  keeping  bad 
company,  staying  out  nights  and  not  attending  school;  he  was  committed 
to  an  institution  for  dependent  boys.    At  the  age  of  fifteen  he  was  again  in 
court  on  the  charge  of  incorrigibility;  his  parents  asserted  that  they  could 
not  control  him,  that  he  left  home  and  slept  in  cheap  lodging-houses; 
he  was  then  sent  to  another  institution  for  dependent  boys.    Within  a 
year  he  was  brought  in  again  as  incorrigible;    his  parents  asserted  that 
they  could  not  control  him,  that  he  stayed  away  from  home  and  that  he 
was  becoming  entirely  unmanageable;    he  was  sent  to  an  institution  for 
delinquent  boys.    The  boy  has  been  a  packer  for  a  wholesale  house,  a 
cabin  boy  on  a  lake  boat,  and  has  "helped"  on  a  farm,  working  a  short 
time  at  each  place.     He  was  never  put  on  probation  by  the  court,  but 
on  his  release  from  the  last  institution   he  was  paroled   to  an   officer 
belonging  to  the  institution.    This  officer  has  called  to  see  the  boy  but  has 
never  found  him  at  home. 

School  Statement. — I  am  18  years  old.  I  left  school  when  I  was  77. 
I  was  then  in  the  8  grade.  I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was  6  years  old. 
The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are  farming, 
Arithmetic  because  /  have  tried  them. 

94.  A  Polish  family  with  six  children.    The  parents  were  both  about 
twenty-five  years  old  when  they  came  to  this  country,  and  neither  learned 
to  speak  English.    They  have  a  poor  and  bare  home  of  four  rooms;  the 
probation  officer  says  "an  awful  house."    The  father  works  in  a  sausage 
factory  but  earns  very  low  wages.    He  drinks  and  the  mother  is  insane. 
An  older  brother  was  once  in  the  state  reformatory  at  Pontiac  but  the 

310 


FAMILY  PARAGRAPHS  RELATING  TO  BOYS 

family  do  not  know  where  he  is  now.  Three  younger  children  are  still 
at  school,  and  one  girl  keeps  house,  while  this  boy  works.  At  the  age 
of  fourteen  this  boy  was  brought  into  court  by  a  policeman  on  the  charge 
of  disorderly  conduct;  he,  with  other  boys,  had  broken  into  a  store-room 
and  taken  a  lot  of  empty  bottles;  he  was  put  on  probation.  At  the  age 
of  fifteen  he  was  in  court  again  charged  with  snatching  a  pocketbook 
from  a  woman;  he  was  committed  to  the  John  Worthy  School.  At  the 
age  of  sixteen  he  was  again  brought  into  court,  charged  with  stealing 
copper  wire  worth  $7.00,  and  was  again  committed  to  the  John  Worthy 
School.  He  has  been  in  the  John  Worthy  School  fifteen  months  in  all. 
The  boy  was  paroled  to  two  regular  officers,  but  is  now  released  from  pro- 
bation. The  officer  found  it  difficult  to  help  the  boy  because  the  father 
"fought  every  plan."  The  boy  first  went  to  work  as  a  bottle  filler  in  an 
extract  factory;  after  this  he  worked  in  a  machine  shop  four  months  and 
then  in  a  twine  mill;  he  is  now  working  as  a  laborer  in  a  foundry. 

School  Statement. — I  am  18  years  old.  I  left  school  when  I  was  14, 
I  was  then  in  the  6  grade.  I'  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was  8  years  old. 
The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are  dont  know. 

X.     MEMBERS  OF  GANGS 

95.  A  Bohemian  family  with  seven  children,  one  of  whom  died  in 
infancy.   This  boy  is  the  eldest.    The  father  and  mother  were  both  about 
twenty-one  years  old  when  they  immigrated,  and  they  were  married  a 
year  later.    The  father  works  in  a  tailor  shop  as  a  coat  presser  but  earns 
very  low  wages.    He  drank  a  good  deal  and  formerly  had  the  reputation 
of  being  lazy  and  letting  his  wife  go  out  to  support  him  by  washing,  but 
his  habits  have  improved.    The  mother  still  works  out  part  of  the  time, 
as  the  family  are  trying  to  pay  for  their  five-room    cottage  which   is 
mortgaged  for  $600.    This  boy  was  a  member  of  a  gang  in  a  Bohemian 
colony  which  was  demoralized  by  one  very  bad  boy.    When  this  boy  was 
twelve  he  was  brought  into  court  charged  with  breaking  a  seal  on  a  freight 
car  and  stealing  apples  worth  $10.    He  was  put  on  probation,  at  first 
under  the  care  of  a  police  officer,  but  later  under  a  probation  officer 
who  visited  the  home  every  week,  became  a  friend  and  counsellor,  and 
secured  help  for  the  family  when  the  father  was  "laid  off."   This  officer 
said  that  one  bad  boy  was  responsible  for  the  wrongdoing  of  this  boy  and 
the  other  boys  in  the  gang.     So  far  as  the  officer  could  learn  they  were 
all  good  boys  with  the  exception  of  the  leader.  When  the  gang  was  broken 
up  this  boy  was  all  right.    He  is  working  now  as  a  driller  for  some  brass 
works  and  "gives  in"  his  wages.    Before  this  he  worked  for  six  months  in 
a  brick  kiln  as  a  laborer. 

School  Statement. — I  am  77  years  old.  I  left  school  when  I  was  14. 
I  was  then  in  the  5  grade.  I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was  6  years  old. 
The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are  Arithmetic, 
Spelling,  Reading  and  Writing  because  /  could  not  get  any  employment  with- 
out any  education. 

96.  An  Irish  family  with  eight  children.    The  father  was  twenty- 
six  and  the  mother  twenty-four  when  they  were  married,  and  they  did  not 
leave  Ireland  until  four  years  later.    They  are  very  respectable,  industrious 

311 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 

people  and  have  a  good  home.  The  father  is  a  building  laborer  and  earns 
good  wages  when  he  is  working.  He  drinks,  however,  and  is  said  to  be 

"very  hard  on  the  boys."    This  boy  got  in  with  the  notorious  E gang, 

which  had  its  headquarters  in  a  neighboring  district.  When  he  was  fifteen 
years  old  he  was  brought  into  court  by  his  mother,  charged  with  incorrigibil- 
ityand  staying  out  at  night;  he  was  put  on  probation.  Within  a  year  he 
was  brought  in  again  for  flipping  cars,  and  his  mother  asked  to  have  him 
sent  to  the  John  Worthy  School.  According  to  the  mother,  the  boy  was 
never  regularly  under  probation,  but  "out  of  friendship  for  the  family, 
a  police  officer  kept  his  eye  on  him"  for  several  years.  The  officer  visited 
him  at  his  home  and  often  talked  with  him  on  the  street.  He  found  the 
threat  of  the  John  Worthy  School  the  only  means  of  securing  the  boy's 
obedience  to  his  parents.  The  boy  improved  for  a  while  under  probation 
and  as  a  result  of  his  stay  at  the  John  Worthy  School,  but  his  parents 
thought  the  gang  influence  destroyed  the  progress  he  had  made.  He  worked 
in  an  automobile  establishment  for  nearly  a  year,  and  then  he  gave  it  up 
and  joined  the  navy. 

97.  A  Canadian  family  with  eight  children,  of  whom  two  are  mar- 
ried and  one  is  dead.    At  the  time  of  marriage  the  father  was  thirty-two 
and  the  mother  twenty-six,  and  they  came  to  the  United  States  ten  years 
later.    The  father  is  a  carpenter,  who  is  now  too  old  to  work.    They  had 
a  very  decent  home  of  four  rooms,  but  the  family  discipline  was  evidently 
very  lax.    The  mother  said  she  could  never  do  anything  with  her  boys 
after  they  were  twelve  years  old.    She  was  ill,  however,  and  in  the  hospital 
for  nine  weeks  just  before  this  boy  was  brought  into  court.    He  was  then 
fifteen.     After  his  mother  went  to  the  hospital  he  got  in  with  a  gang  of 
boys  who  broke  into  a  house  and  stole  $196  in  money  and  jewelry  worth 
$200.    He  was  put  on  probation  and  never  came  into  court  again.    For 
one  year  he  worked  intermittently  as  a  teamster  but  he  is  now  in  Wyoming 
and  doing  very  well  on  a  ranch.    He  was  paroled  to  a  police  officer  who 
says  that  he  does  not  consider  the  boy  a  real  delinquent.    The  officer 
made  only  a  few  visits  to  the  home,  as  he  had  so  much  confidence  in  the 
family's  good  influence  that  he  preferred  to  leave  the  boy  to  his  parents 
as  much  as  possible. 

98.  A  German  immigrant  family  with  eight  children,  four  of  whom 
died  in  infancy.    The  father  was  twenty-six  and  the  mother  twenty-one 
at  the  time  of  marriage,  and  they  immigrated  three  years  later.    The  father 
has  regular  work  now  as  a  car-cleaner,  but  the  mother  used  to  take  in 
washing  to  help  support  the  family.    They  are  very  industrious,  respec- 
table people,  and  have  a  good  home  of  four  rooms.    The  parents  say  that 
when  this  boy  was  fifteen  he  was  influenced  by  two  older  boys  to  leave  his 
home;   that  after  this  "bum"  he  was  afraid  to  come  home  and  stayed 
away  for  seven  weeks  until  he  was  brought  into  court  charged  with 
vagrancy.     He  and  two  older  boys  were  accused  of  spending  their  time 
loitering  around  street  corners  and  sleeping  in  toilet  rooms.     He  was 
committed  to  the  John  Worthy  School  for  two  months  and  then  put  on 
probation.     He  was  paroled  to  an  officer  who  became  a  friend  of  the 
entire  family.    The  boy  reported  to  her  every  two  weeks  and  she  visited 
the  home  occasionally.     Though  the  boy  is  now  released  from  parole, 
he  still  goes  to  see  her.    The  mother  says  he  enjoyed  going  to  the  officer's 

312 


FAMILY  PARAGRAPHS  RELATING  TO  BOYS 

home,  but  she  liked  to  have  the  officer  call  at  the  house  for  a  friendly 
visit  with  her.  The  boy  is  bright  and  industrious.  He  has  given  up  his 
former  companions  and  is  learning  the  jeweler's  trade.  He  brings  most 
of  his  money  home  but  "buys  his  own  clothes." 

School  Statement. — I  am  77  years  old.  I  left  school  when  I  was  14- 
I  was  then  in  the  6  grade.  I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was  6  years  old. 

The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are None  of 

the  studies  help  me  to  earn  money  because 

99.  A  Bohemian  family  with  three  children.    The  two  older  sons 
have  married,  and  this  boy  is  the  only  child  at  home  now.    The  parents 
married  when  the  father  was  twenty-eight  and  the  mother  twenty-seven, 
and  they  immigrated  five  years  later.     The  mother  speaks  no  English 
and  the  father  very  little.    They  are  hardworking,  quiet  people  who  have 
lived  for  nineteen  years  in  a  four-room  house,  which  they  now  own. 
The   father  is  a  lumber-yard  laborer.    The  boy  did  not  "get  on"  at 
school   and  did  not  get   beyond  the  fourth  grade — his  parents   think 
because  he  belonged  to  the  L —  Street  gang.    At  the  age  of  fifteen  his 
father  brought  him  into  court  as  incorrigible,  claiming  that  he  was  idle, 
disobedient,  untruthful,  and  that  he  loafed  with  other  bad  boys;   he  was 
put  on  probation  under  the  care  of  a  police  probation  officer.    The  officer 
visited  the  home  several  times  and  tried  to  make  the  boy  go  to  work,  but 
did  not  succeed.     The  boy  worked  for  two  months,  several  years  ago, 
but  has  not  worked  since  and  says  he  never  will  again.    The  father  seems  to 
be  either  thoroughly  discouraged  or  else  very  hard  on  the  boy.    He  says  the 
boy  has  never  improved,  that  he  is  "getting  worse  all  the  time,"  that  he  has 
tried  everything  from  beating  to  turning  him  out  of  the  house,  and  wants 
him  sent  to  the  House  of  Correction  to  see  if  that  will  make  him  work. 

100.  An  American  family  with  three  children,  all  boys.     The  mother 
died  of  tuberculosis  when  this  boy,  the  youngest,  was  about  three  years 
old.     They  had  no  housekeeper,  and  the  father,  who  drank  heavily,  paid 
little  attention  to  the  children  and  the  home  was  poor  and  cheerless.     One 
of  the  older  brothers  was  in  the  John  Worthy  School  once,  but  has 

been  in  no  further  trouble.     This  boy  used  to  go  with  the  A 

Avenue  Gang,  but  says  he  finally  saw  that  he. had  to  "cut  it  out."     He 
was  brought  into  court  at  the  age  of  twelve  for  truancy  and  was  sent  to  the 
Chicago  Parental  School.     A  year  and  a  half  later  he  was  brought  in 
again  because  he  "  used  profane  language  to  a  policeman  on  a  public 
highway"  and  was  charged  with  disorderly  conduct;  he  was  put  on  pro- 
bation.    The  father  and  the  brother  felt  that  the  Chicago  Parental  School 
did  the  boy  "a  world  of  good."    They  do  not  remember  the  probation 
officer,  who  says  that  she  went  to  the  home   several  times,  but  could 
get  no  satisfaction  out  of  the  father,  and  so  did  not  accomplish  much. 
The  boy  now  lives  with  his  employer,  a  green-grocer.     He  plays  cards 
with  his  employer,  goes  to  bed  early,  and  spends  most  of  his  spare  time  in 
his  room,  where  he  says  he  has  "everything  fixed  up  to  suit  him."    The 
boy  has  worked  on  a  farm,  as  a  delivery  boy,  and  as  a  grocery  clerk. 

School  Statement. — I  am  77  years  old.  I  left  school  when  I  was  75. 
I  was  then  in  the  6  grade.  I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was  10  years  old. 
The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are  Writing 
because  /  liked  to  do  it. 

313 


APPENDIX  V 

FAMILY    PARAGRAPHS    RELATING   TO    THE    DELIN- 
QUENCY OF  50  GIRLS 

COMMITTED  TO  THE  STATE  TRAINING  SCHOOL  AT  GENEVA  BY  THE  JUVEN- 
ILE COURT  OF  COOK  COUNTY  AT  CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS, 
DURING  THE  YEARS  1903  TO  1908 

A  series  of  brief  paragraphs  relating  to  delinquent  girls, 
similar  to  those  that  have  been  given  in  Appendix  IV  for  delin- 
quent boys,  are  presented  in  the  following  pages.  These  paragraphs 
attempt  to  summarize  all  the  facts  gathered  which  relate  to  the 
home  circumstances  of  50  delinquent  girls,  and  the  alleged  offenses 
that  brought  them  before  the  juvenile  court.  The  stories  are  told 
briefly,  but  it  is  hoped  in  sufficient  detail  to  bring  clearly  to  light 
the  conditions  from  which  this  tragic  procession  of  young  girls  have 
come.  It  was  pointed  out  in  Chapter  II  that  80  per  cent  of  the 
2440  young  girls  who  passed  before  the  juvenile  court  during  this 
first  decade  of  the  court's  history  were  brought  to  court  because 
of  immorality;  that  large  numbers  of  them,  many  of  tender  years, 
had  been  taken  from  the  vilest  haunts  of  vice,  from  low  rooming 
houses  and  houses  of  prostitution.  It  has  also  been  pointed  out  in 
several  other  chapters  that  in  dealing  with  the  delinquent  girl, 
the  juvenile  court  finds  itself  face  to  face  with  the  problem  of  degra- 
dation. No  one  can  study  the  conditions  from  which  these  so- 
called  delinquent  children  have  come  without  facing  much  that  is 
painful  and  revolting,  and  in  the  "paragraphs"  that  follow  appear 
many  hideous  facts.  No  attempt  has  been  made  to  exclude  pain- 
ful or  shocking  circumstances,  because  it  is  believed  that  in  trying 
to  solve  this  problem  of  saving  the  young  girls  who  now  go  to  ruin 
every  year,  the  community  is  groping  blindly;  and  all  light  that 
can  be  shed  on  the  dark  places  in  which  these  sad  children  are 
sometimes  found  but  in  which  they  so  often  perish  without  our 
knowledge,  will  lead  towards  their  swift  cleansing. 

During  the  summer  months  spent  at  the  State  Training 
School  at  Geneva,  an  investigator,  who  became  friendly  with  these 


FAMILY    PARAGRAPHS    RELATING   TO   GIRLS 

girls,  obtained  from  254  of  them  the  stories  of  their  first  wrong- 
doing. Of  these  254  girls,  101  alleged  that  they  were  at  first  the 
victims  of  force  or  fraud,  but  many  of  them  confessed  that  later 
they  continued  voluntarily  to  lead  irregular  lives.  This  included 
also  the  girls  who  said  they  first  yielded  when  they  had  been  made 
drunk  or  after  they  had  been  drugged;  it  included  also  the  46 
unspeakably  horrible  cases  in  which  the  girls  were  victimized  by 
members  of  their  own  family,*  by  those  who  were  their  guardians, 
or  by  older  relatives  who  should  have  been  responsible  for  their 
welfare.  In  74  cases,  the  girl's  yielding  to  temptation  was  in- 
cidental to  some  form  of  recreation, — unregulated  childish  play, 
unsupervised  and  unchaperoned  dances,  visits  to  a  "show,"  late 
walks  in  public  parks.  In  52  cases  the  girl  had  been  paid  a  paltry 
sum  of  money  or  given  "gum  and  candy"  as  an  inducement  to 
consent  to  this  heart-breaking  ruin  of  her  life  when  she  was  virtu- 
ally only  a  child  at  play.  In  27  cases  affection  was  given  as  the 
excuse.  The  large  number  of  girls  who  alleged  force  or  fraud  as  an 
explanation  might  seem  incredible  except  for  the  fact  that  in  the 
great  majority  of  these  cases  their  statements  were  confirmed  by 
the  records  of  the  institution  and  the  court. 

Painful  as  many  of  these  stories  are,  we  have  felt  that  we  had 
no  right  to  omit  any  essential  fact  because  it  seemed  too  ugly  to 
face;  for  we  should  be  indeed  recreant  if  we  failed  to  uncover  in 
so  far  as  lies  in  our  power  the  wrong  conditions  of  which  these 
children  are  the  victims;  as  the  community  would  in  turn  be 
recreant  if  it  failed  to  take  to  heart  the  waste  of  young  life  which  is 
here  set  forth. 

As  the  stories  are  largely  stories  of  degraded  conditions,  and 
degradation  means  drunkenness,  immorality,  lack  of  cleanliness, 
irregularity  of  life,  and  low  neighborhood  associations,  it  is  im- 
possible to  find  principles  of  selection  on  the  basis  of  which  these 
paragraphs  might  be  grouped.  They  are  at  once  too  complex  and 
too  similar, — and  they  are  therefore  presented  in  sequence  and  not, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  boys'  histories,  in  classified  groups. 

*  In  78  additional  cases  from  the  court  records  the  girl's  companion  was  a 
relative  or  some  one  who  occupied  a  position  of  responsibility  to  the  girl,  such  as 
her  employer,  the  brother  of  her  foster-mother,  the  brother  of  her  stepmother, 
the  son  or  husband  of  her  mistress,  and  others  in  similar  positions. 

315 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

1.  An  American  family  with  seven  children.     The  father  was 
twenty-eight  and  the  mother  sixteen  at  the  time  of  their  marriage.    The 
father  is  a  bricklayer  who  can  earn  $30  a  week  when  he  works;   but  he 
is  a  shiftless  drunkard,  idle  most  of  the  time,  and  even  when  working 
contributes  nothing  to  the  support  of  the  children.     The  mother  died 
twelve  years  ago  when  the  last  child  was  born,  and  the  children  now  live 
with  the  grandmother,  who  is  a  good,  hardworking  woman  employed  as 
a  janitress.    She  has  always  been  fond  of  the  children  and  tried  to  take 
good  care  of  them.    One  of  the  sisters  is  a  domestic  servant  and  works 
faithfully.    This  girl  left  school  at  the  age  of  fifteen  when  she  was  in  the 
seventh  grade  to  work  in  a  department  store.    At  first  she  always  brought 
her  wages  home  to  her  grandmother,  but  she  was  evidently  wrongly 
influenced  by  a  bad  girl,  who  persuaded  her  to  leave  home  and  go  to  live 
in  a  cheap  rooming-house.     The  grandmother  had  her  arrested  there 
when  she  was  sixteen  years  old  and  brought  into  court.    She  was  found  to 
have  been  immoral  and  was  sent  to  Geneva,  where  she  remained  nearly 
two  years.    She  is  now  living  with  her  grandmother  again  and  doing  well. 

2.  A  German  family  with  four  children,  of  whom  this  girl  is  the 
youngest.    The  mother  died  when  the  child  was  born,  but  the  home  was 
not  broken  up  until  eight  years  ago  when  the  father  died.    The  father 
drank  and  was  not  good  to  the  children.    They  were  not  sent  to  school 
and  were  neglected  in  every  way.    This  girl  began  to  work  out  as  a  domes- 
tic servant  when  she  was  only  twelve,  and  at  sixteen,  when  she  was  brought 
into  court,  she  could  neither  read  nor  write.  The  probation  officer  thought 
her  mentally  deficient,  and  the  Geneva  investigator  thought  that   she 
was  not  normally  bright.    She  was  first  brought  into  court  when  she  was 
fifteen  after  spending  the  night  in  one  of  the  parks  with  a  young  man. 
She  acknowledged  that  she  had  been  immoral,  and  she  was  put  on  proba- 
tion.   Within  a  year,  however,  she  was  arrested  at  half-past  one  in  the 
morning,  talking  to  some  men,  evidently  for  the  purpose  of  immoral 
solicitation.     She  was  held  temporarily  at  the  court  on  the  charge  of 
being  disorderly  and  this  time  was  sent  to  Geneva,  where  she  has  been  for 
a  year  and  a  half. 

3.  A  Danish  family  with  two  daughters  and  one  son.    The  home  is 
now  broken  up,  and  the  father's  whereabouts  are  unknown.    The  mother 
became  insane  and  after  she  was  sent  to  an  institution  the  father  lived 
with  the  three  children  in  a  rear  cellar  apartment.   They  all  slept  in  one 
bed,  with  a  drunken  man  lodger  on  a  couch  in  the  same  room.    The  three 
children  were  brought  into  court  as  dependents  when  this  girl,  who  was 
the  second  child,  was  twelve  years  old,  and  the  court  paroled  them  to 
their  father.    This  girl  had  already  been  criminally  assaulted  by  a  neighbor. 
At  the  age  of  sixteen  she  was  brought  into  court  again  as  a  delinquent, 
"running  the  streets,  insulting  people,  and  generally  disturbing  the  peace." 
She  was  put  on  probation,  but  several  months  later  it  was  discovered  that 
she  was  immoral,  and  she  was  sent  to  Geneva,  where  she  has  been  for  a 
year  and  a  half.    An  older  sister  was  first  taken  care  of  by  a  good-hearted 
neighbor  and  married  early,  but  committed  suicide  soon  after.     The 
brother  has  been  put  in  a  dependent  institution. 

316 


FAMILY    PARAGRAPHS   RELATING   TO   GIRLS 

4.  An  American  family  with  three  children,  of  whom  this  girl  is 
the  eldest.    The  mother  died  when  the  girl  was  five  years  old,  and  the 
father  kept  the  children  with  him  but  moved  about  for  nearly  eight  years 
from  one  boarding-house  to  another,  and  the  children,  of  course,  had  no 
home  care.    He  has  only  one  arm  and  is  now  employed  as  a  "tower  man" 
on  the  railroad,  but  he  has  always  had  difficulty  finding  work.    When 
this  girl  was  thirteen  the  father  remarried,  and  the  stepmother's  mother 
and  sister  came  to  live  with  the  family.    The  stepmother  has  since  had 
two  children  of  her  own,  and  as  her  mother  and  sister  continued  to  live 
with  her,  there  has  been  a  complicated  family  group.    The  stepmother's 
relations  with  this  girl  have  always  been  very  unpleasant,  and  the  pro- 
bation officer  thinks  that  the  stepmother  has  been  extremely  harsh  and 
severe  with  her  and  that  she  easily  got  into  bad  company.    When  she 
was  seventeen  she  was  arrested  for  stealing  $10  from  her  father;  the  court 
put  her  on  probation  for  six  months.    At  the  end  of  this  time  she  ran  away 
from  home  and  began  a  low  rooming-house  life.    She  was  then  brought 
to  court  and  sent  to  Geneva,  where  she  remained  two  years  and  a  half. 
She  was  released  about  a  year  ago  and  was  married,  but  began  an  im- 
moral life  again  and  her  husband  left  her. 

5.  A  German  family  in  which  there  were  three  sets  of  children, 
seven  altogether.    The  girl's  own  mother,  who  was  the  father's  second 
wife,  died  when  the  girl  was  four  years  old,  and  the  father  married  a 
third  time.     The  father  was  a  common  laborer  with  regular  work  and 
the  home  seems  to  have  been  comfortable  enough,  but  there  was  probably 
a  good  deal  of  friction.    An  older  half-sister  had  a  disagreement  with  her 
second  stepmother,  left  home,  and  "went  wrong."    This  girl  worked  first 
as  a  clerk  in  a  dry  goods  store.     Her  father  and  stepmother  attribute  her 
downfall  to  bad  associates  whom  she  met  at  a  skating  rink  in  a  pleasure 
park,  which  they  think  a  very  bad  place  for  young  people.    When  she  was 
fifteen  years  old,  she  was  picked  up  on  the  street  at  two  o'clock  in  the 
morning  and  brought  into  court  as  incorrigible.    She  was  first  put  on  pro- 
bation for  a  number  of  months,  but  would  not  stay  at  home,  was  immoral, 
and  was  finally  brought  into  court  again  on  the  same  charge  and  sent  to 
Geneva,  where  she  has  been  for  only  a  few  months. 

6.  This  girl  belonged  to  a  family  of  four  children  with  a  Norwegian 
father  and  a  Danish  mother.    The  father  died  seventeen  years  ago,  and 
the  mother  then  married  a  Danish  man.    They  have  always  had  a  fairly 
comfortable  home.    The  mother  was  always  very  kind  to  the  girl;    the 
stepfather,  however,  was  very  severe  with  her  and  scolded  her  a  great  deal. 
She  worked  for  a  time  in  a  shoe-string  factory  and  always  brought  her 
money  home.    She  then  went  to  work  in  a  restaurant  as  a  waitress,  and 
the  mother  thinks  the  girls  she  met  there  led  her  astray.     She  was  ex- 
tremely pretty  and  attracted  much  attention.     Her  father  became  so 
hard  on  her  that  she  finally  left  home  and  said  she  was  going  to  live  with 
friends.    When  she  was  sixteen,  her  mother  brought  her  into  court  on  the 
charge  of  keeping  bad  company.     The  girl  was  put  on  probation,  but 
after  one  month  she  was  found  in  a  saloon  with  two  men,  and  there  is 
evidence  to  show  that  she  was  leading  an  immoral  life  in  a  low  hotel. 
When  the  case  was  tried,  several  men  were  in  court  to  pay  her  fine  or 

317 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 

bail  if  any  should  be  asked.  She  was  committed  to  Geneva,  where  she 
remained  a  little  over  two  years.  She  was  paroled  to  live  with  a  family 
who  were  very  good  to  her  and  sent  her  to  high  school  for  two  years. 
She  is  now  married  and  seems  to  be  getting  on  very  well. 

7.  A  German-American  family  with  six  children.     The  home  is 
now  broken  up.    The  mother,  who  was  always  in  delicate  health,  died  of 
tuberculosis.     The  father,  who  had  been  married  before,  was  an  old 
soldier  and  had  a  small  pension  which  he  spent  entirely  on  himself.     He 
seldom  worked  or  contributed  anything  to  the  support  of  the  family  but 
stayed  in  a  soldiers'  home  from  time  to  time,  and  the  family  was  helped 
irregularly  by  a  charitable  society.    The  home  was  never  comfortable  and 
at  one  time  the  family  lived  in  a  house  so  dilapidated  that  they  paid  no 
rent  for  it.    When  this  girl  was  sixteen  years  old,  she  was  turned  away  from 
her  home  by  her  father,  who  said  she  was  wild  and  profane  and  spent  her 
time  in  bad  company.    She  was  brought  into  court,  found  to  be  immoral, 
and  sent  to  Geneva,  where  she  has  been  for  three  years. 

8.  A  Russian-Jewish  family  with  four  children.    The  father,  a 
junk-dealer,  is  able  to  support  his  family.     The  girl's  mother  -is  dead, 
and  the  girl  did  not  get  on  well  with  her  stepmother.     She  did  housework 
for  a  time,  and  then  at  the  age  of  sixteen  married  a  man  who  took  her  at 
once  to  a  house  of  prostitution.     When  her  parents  traced  her  there,  the 
keeper  attempted  to  transfer  her  to  another  house,  but  while  en  route 
she  escaped.     The  man  was  sent  to  the  penitentiary.     The  girl  went 
home,  but  the  stepmother  and  the  entire  family  were  so  unkind  to  her 
that  she  came  into  court  and  asked  that  she  be  sent  to  Geneva.     After 
her  return  she  got  in  with  bad  company  and  married  a  worthless  man. 
Her  health  was  broken,  and  she  died  when  her  first  child  was  born. 

9.  Nothing  is  known  about  the  father  of  this  girl,  but  the  reports 
are  that  he  was  a  colored  man.     The  mother  is  German  and  says  she  was 
thirty-five  and  the  father  thirty-one  when  they  were  married.     They 
had  five  children.     The  home  is  very  poor  and  dirty,  and  the  neighbors 
complain  about  the  family  and  say  they  use  vile  language  and  are  dis- 
reputable.    The  mother  does  washing  at  home,  one  sister  is  a  laundress, 
and  two  other  sisters  do  only  unskilled  factory  work,  earning  very  low 
wages.     The  family  have  been  helped  at  different  times  by  a  charitable 
society.     This  girl  was  regarded  as  subnormal  and  she  did  not  get  beyond 
the  second  grade  in  school.   The  mother  complained  that  she  had  to  be 
watched  constantly  to  keep  her  away  from  "bad  company."    When  she 
was  eleven  years  old,  she  was  brought  into  court  charged  with  stealing 
a  silk  shawl  worth  $75.     She  was  sent  to  Geneva,  where  she  has  been  for 
five  years.     The  mother  wants  the  girl  to  come  home  so  that  she  can  work 
and  bring  in  her  wages.     She  says  the  girl  has  caused  her  a  great  deal  of 
trouble  and  she  now  wants  her  to  help. 

10.  An  American  family  with  three  children,  of  whom  this  girl 
is  the  youngest.     After  her  birth  the  mother  became  an   invalid,  con- 
tracted the  morphine  habit,  and  finally  died  of  tuberculosis  when  the  girl 
was  ten  years  old.    The  mother's  people  are  said  to  be  a  "bad  lot,"  and 
one  of  her  brothers  is  in  the  penitentiary.    After  the  mother's  death  the 

318 


FAMILY    PARAGRAPHS    RELATING  TO   GIRLS 

father  remarried,  and  there  has  always  been  a  good  deal  of  ill  feeling  be- 
tween the  girl  and  her  stepmother.  The  stepmother  has  been  outwardly 
kind  but  has  no  affection  for  the  girl  and  does  not  want  her  at  home.  The 
father  is  a  machinist,  earning  good  wages,  and  the  stepmother  keeps 
boarders  and  occasionally  rents  rooms.  The  girl  was  originally  brought 
into  court  as  a  dependent  when  she  was  ten  years  old  during  the  mother's 
illness,  and  was  sent  to  a  home  for  dependent  girls,  but  ran  away  and  came 
home  again.  At  the  age  of  twelve  she  was  brought  into  court  as  a  delin- 
quent for  immorality;  she  was  sleeping  in  barns  and  was  said  to  be  quite 
incorrigible.  She  was  then  sent  to  an  institution  for  delinquent  girls. 
At  the  age  of  thirteen  she  stole  some  money  from  her  stepmother  and  ran 
away  from  home.  The  father  notified  the  police,  and  they  found  her  in 
the  middle  of  the  night  on  some  doorsteps  in  South  Chicago.  She  was  in 
very  bad  physical  condition.  The  father  said  that  he  could  do  nothing 
with  her,  and  she  was  sent  to  Geneva,  where  she  has  been  for  over  three 
years. 

11.  A  Polish  family  with  six  children,  living  in  a  very  degraded 
home.     Both  parents  are  intemperate  and  neither  can  speak  English. 
When  this  girl  was  only  eleven,  the  father  came  home  drunk  and  criminally 
assaulted  her.    A  few  months  later  she  was  brought  into  court  as  a  depen- 
dent and  sent  to  a  home  for  dependent  girls,  but  she  was  later  released 
to  go  back  to  her  old  home.    The  father  and  mother  beat  her  cruelly, 
and  at  the  age  of  thirteen  she  came  in  terror  to  the  police  station  for  pro- 
tection from  her  mother's  abuse.    She  was  sent  to  another  institution  for 
three  months  and  again  released  to  go  back  to  her  old  home.    When  she  was 
fourteen  and  went  to  work,  her  parents  took  all  her  wages  and  continued 
to  beat  and  abuse  her.    She  ran  away  from  home  and  was  then  brought 
to  court  as  an  incorrigible  delinquent.    Her  parents  complained  that  she 
was  keeping  bad  company  and  would  not  stay  at  home,  and  she  was  re- 
turned to  the  institution  for  two  years.    When  she  was  sixteen  she  was  in 
court  again  on  the  charge  of  trying  to  buy  clothes  with  a  forged  check 
and  was  sent  back  to  the  same  institution.    At  the  age  of  seventeen  she 
was  found  sleeping  in  hallways  and  was  found  to  be  very  immoral.     She 
was  sent  to  Geneva,  where  she  has  been  for  several  months. 

12.  A  moral  and  industrious  German  family  with  seven  children. 
The  father  was  twenty-five  and  the  mother  twenty  at  the  time  of  marriage, 
and  they  immigrated  several  years  later.    The  father  was  a  laborer  in 
the  building  trades,  earning  about  $12  a  week.    They  seem  to  have  had 
a  good  home.    This  girl  began  working  in  a  factory  when  she  was  four- 
teen and  seems  to  have  been  a  good  girl  until  she  got  out  of  work.   While 
she  was  "hunting  a  new  job,"  she  got  in  the  habit  of  going  downtown  to 
look  for  work  and  then  going  into  department  stores  to  get  warm  and  rest. 
When  she  was  sixteen,  she  was  brought  into  court  with  several  other 
girls  who  were  in  the  habit  of  visiting  department  store  waiting  rooms  and 
going  to  rooms  with  men  for  immoral  purposes.    She  was  sent  to  Geneva 
and  after  one  year  was  paroled.    She  is  now  working  as  a  bookkeeper  and 
doing  well. 

13.  An  Irish  family  with  five  children,  of  whom  this  girl  is  the 
eldest.    The  father  was  thirty-four  and  the  mother  twenty-two  at  the  time 

319 


THE   DELINQUENT   CHILD   AND   THE   HOME 

of  their  marriage.  The  father  is  a  janitor,  earning  about  $10  a  week.  He 
formerly  drank  and  deserted  the  family  three  times,  but  he  has  now 
reformed  and  the  family  are  reunited.  They  are,  however,  very  poor 
and  during  the  last  two  years  they  have  applied  to  a  relief  society  ten 
times  for  aid.  The  mother  used  to  work  away  from  home  doing  housework, 
and  this  girl  stayed  at  home  and  took  care  of  the  house  and  the  younger 
children.  At  the  age  of  fifteen  she  left  home  and  lived  for  two  weeks  with 
a  friend  whose  parents  kept  a  disreputable  rooming  house,  frequented  by 
railroad  men.  The  mother  said  that  she  was  good  and  industrious  until 
she  ran  away  from  home.  The  girl  claimed  that  she  had  never  been 
immoral,  but,  as  she  had  been  associating  with  disreputable  people, 
the  court  sent  her  to  Geneva.  She  has  been  there  only  a  short  time,  but 
seems  to  be  doing  well. 

14.  An  Irish-American  family  with  six  children  living  in  a  very 
poor  and  dirty  four-room  apartment.    The  mother  was  only  eighteen  at 
the  time  of  marriage.    The  father  deserted  the  family  five  times  and  is 
now  living  in  an  old  soldiers'  home.     His  wife  says  he  does  this  because 
he  is  lazy  and  that  he  could  work  if  he  would.    The  mother  is  a  tailoress 
but  earns  only  about  $3.00  a  week.    Both  parents  are  shiftless,  begging 
people,  who  have  constantly  sought  aid  from  all  possible  charitable 
sources  and  are  on  the  records  of  nearly  every  relief  society  in  Chicago. 
At  one  time  they  were  evicted  and  all  went  to  a  home  for  dependents. 
This  girl  was  in  a  soldiers'  orphan  home  from  the  age  of  seven  until  she 
was  sixteen.    Soon  after  leaving  she  was  brought  to  court  by  her  mother  as 
incorrigible  and  immoral  and  sent  to  Geneva,  where  she  has  been  for  about 
nine  months.    The  mother  complained  that  she  stayed  out  late  at  night, 
associated  with  vicious  and  immoral  persons,  and  was  "going  to  destruc- 
tion."    Three  other  children  are  in  the  soldiers'  home,  and  the  older 
boys,  who  live  with  the  mother,  will  not  work.    The  mother  complains 
bitterly  about  them,  but  she  herself  is  a  shiftless,  quarrelsome  woman  who 
prefers  begging  to  working. 

15.  A  family  of  five   children  with  a  Canadian  father  and  an 
American  mother.    The  mother  committed  suicide,  and  this  girl,  who  was 
then  nine  years  old,  kept  house  for  the  father  and  the  younger  children. 
They  lived  in  a  house  that  had  belonged  to  the  children's  grandmother. 
The  father  was   a  day   laborer,  who  worked  irregularly,  was   a   very 
shiftless  man,  and  probably  a  drunkard.     The  children  are  scattered 
now,  and  none  of  them  is  doing  very  well.    The  two  boys  are  both  in 
institutions  and  one  has  been  in  court  several  times.    One  sister  has  been 
adopted.     This    girl    was    brought    into    court   when   she   was    fifteen 
years  old  by  the  grandmother  and  the  father,  who  said  she  had  been 
"beyond  control"  for  two  years  and  had  become  immoral.    She  was  sent 
to  Geneva,  where  she  remained  a  year.    Not  long  after  her  release  she 
ran  away  and  is  now  supposed  to  be  an  inmate  of  a  house  of  prostitution. 

16.  This  girl's  father  is  German  and  her  stepmother  German-Amer- 
ican.   The  father  was  twenty-one  at  the  time  he  married  this  girl's  mother. 
She  has  one  stepbrother.     The  father  is  a  gardener  in  summer  and  a 
janitor  in  winter.    The  girl's  mother  died  when  she  was  very  small  and 

320 


FAMILY    PARAGRAPHS    RELATING   TO   GIRLS 

her  relations  with  her  stepmother  have  never  been  pleasant.  The  home 
has  always  been  clean  and  neat.  This  girl  went  to  live  with  her  aunt  for 
seven  months,  but  the  aunt  brought  her  home,  saying  she  could  do  nothing 
with  her.  The  father  and  the  stepmother  brought  her  into  court  when  she 
was  twelve  years  old  and  in  the  third  grade  in  school,  saying  that  she  stole 
from  them,  that  she  would  not  go  to  school,  and  was  very  immoral.  They 
asked  to  have  her  sent  away  and  the  court  sent  her  to  Geneva  where  she 
has  been  for  nearly  three  years.  The  father  and  the  stepmother  told  the 
investigator  that  they  did  not  think  the  girl  was  improving  there  and  that 
there  was  little  hope  for  her. 

17.  This  girl  is  one  of  two  daughters  of  Roumanian-Jewish  parents 
who  still  live  in  Roumania.    She  came  to  this  country  to  live  with  a  sister, 
who  was  supposed  to  be  a  widow,  but  who,  the  girl  says,  was  not  a  good 
woman.    The  girl  had  been  in  this  country  only  a  few  months  when  a 
man  followed  her  home  from  work,  took  her  money,  and  assaulted  her. 
The  sister  took  all  the  girl's  wages,  and  after  a  time  the  girl  refused  to 
live  with  her.    When  she  was  fifteen  years  old,  the  sister  had  her  brought 
into  court,  claiming  that  she  was  leading  an  immoral  life.    She  was  under 
the  care  of  the  probation  officer  for  only  four  days.    The  probation  officer 
found  that  the  girl  did  not  intend  to  do  right,  and  had  her  sent  to 
Geneva,  where  she  has  been  for  nearly  six  months. 

1 8.  This  girl  is  the  daughter  of  a  colored  father  and  a  white  mother. 
At  marriage  the  father  was  twenty-two  and  the  mother  seventeen.    The 
father,  a  janitor,  who  sleeps  at  his  place  of  work,  has  been  arrested  several 
times  for  stealing.     The  mother,  a  German,  died  of  epilepsy.     Several 
children  died  in  infancy;  four  are  now  living.    The  home  and  the  neighbor- 
hood conditions  were  always  bad.    This  girl,  who  is  not  normally  bright, 
was  not  sent  regularly  to  school,  and  during  her  mother's  life  was  entirely 
without  care.    She  was  brought  into  court  at  the  age  of  fourteen  as  incor- 
rigible and  put  on  probation  for  six  months.    Finally  at  the  age  of  seven- 
teen, she  was  brought  into  court  on  the  charge  of  immorality  and  stealing. 
She  was  sent  to  Geneva,  where  she  has  been  for  eight  months. 

19.  A  Russian-Jewish  family  with  fourteen  children,  six  of  whom 
died  in  infancy.    The  father  was  seventeen  and  the  mother  sixteen  at  the 
time  of  marriage.    The  father,  who  was  a  cloakmaker,  died  three  years  ago 
of  tuberculosis.    He  was  immoral  and  cruel  to  his  wife  and  deserted  the 
family  several  times.    The  family  has  received  a  great  deal  of  help  from 
a  charitable  society.  This  girl  left  school  while  in  the  fifth  or  sixth  grade  to 
work  in  a  laundry;    she  always  "gave  in"  her  wages.     Her  father  was 
very  unkind  to  her,  and  she  finally  left  home  because  of  his  ill-treatment. 
At  the  age  of  seventeen  she  was  brought  into  court  by  her  mother,  who 
claimed  that  she  was  staying  out  late  at  night  and  frequenting  saloons. 
She  said  that  she  had  been  betrayed  by  a  man  who  had  promised  to  marry 
her.    She  was  sent  to  Geneva  and  had  remained  there  about  two  years 
when  she  was  allowed  to  go  home  on  parole.    But  she  soon  returned  to 
an  immoral  life  and  finally  became  so  ill  that  she  returned  to  Geneva 
voluntarily.    This  time  she  has  been  in  the  institution  about  a  year  and 
will  return  home  within  a  few  days. 

321 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 

20.  A  German-American  family  with  seven  children.    The  father 
was  twenty-one  and  the  mother  seventeen  when  they  were  married. 
The  father,  who  was  a  carpenter,  was  killed  in  an  accident  and  left  only 
a  small  amount  of  insurance  for  the  support  of  the  family.    The  mother 
was  obliged  to  work  very  hard  and  kept  a  restaurant  at  one  time,  but 
she  says  the  girls  would  not  help  her  and  she  had  to  give  it  up.  A  charit- 
able society  helped  them  for  a  while  but  now  the  two  sons  are  able  to 
support  the  family.     These  two  girls  worked  downtown  in  department 
stores,  and  the  mother  believes  that  this  demoralized  them.    One  of  the 
girls  was  brought  into  court  when  she  was  seventeen  for  leaving  home  and 
living  in  bad  places.    She  was  unquestionably  immoral  and  was  sent  to 
Geneva.    On  her  release  she  worked  for  a  time  in  a  department  store  but 
stole  there  and  was  returned  to  Geneva  at  the  age  of  eighteen.    She  re- 
mained at  Geneva  about  two  years  and  has  just  been  released.    The  other 
girl  was  brought  into  court  by  her  mother  when  she  was  only  thirteen. 
The  mother  complained  that  the  girl  was  incorrigible,  ran  away  from 
home,  and  stayed  with  immoral  colored  people.    She  was  sent  to   an 
institution  for  delinquent  girls,  then  released,  and  returned  when  four- 
teen.    Six  months  ago,  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  she  was  also  sent  to 
Geneva. 

21.  This  girl  is  one  of  a  family  of  five  children  with  a  Norwegian 
father  and  an  American  mother.     Both  parents  were  twenty-three  at  the 
time  of  their  marriage.    The  father  was  a  salesman  earning  good  wages, 
but  he  drank  heavily  and  would  not  support  the  family.     He  finally 
deserted  them  ten  years  ago,  and  the  home  was  broken  up.   The  mother 
thought  it  best  to  put  four  of  the  children  in  institutions  until  some  of 
them  were  old  enough  to  work.    The  three  girls  were  sent  to  a  home  for 
dependent  girls,  where  they  stayed  several  years,  and  one  boy  was  sent 
to  a  home  for  dependent  boys.     The  mother  has  always  worked  hard; 
she  peddled  "notions"  for  years  but  now  she  does  scrubbing  and  cleaning. 
This  girl  worked  out  from  the  time  she  was  twelve  years  old  until  she  was 
sixteen,  although  she  had  completed  only  the  second  grade  in  school; 
she  did  not  like  housework  and  changed  places  frequently.    She  gave  all 
the  money  she  earned  to  her  mother,  who  bought  the  girl  such  clothes 
as  she  thought  best.    The  girl  was  first  brought  into  court  at  the  age  of 
sixteen  on  the  charge  of  immorality,  which  she  admitted.    She  was  put 
on  probation  and  was  sent  for  a  time  to  a  sanitarium.    About  six  months 
later  the  mother  said  the  girl  had  disappeared  and  asked  to  have  a  search 
made  for  her.    She  was  found  by  an  officer  in  a  house  of  prostitution  and 
was  brought  into  court  and  sent  at  once  to  Geneva,  where  she  has  been 
for  a  year.    A  brother  of  the  girl  has  recently  been  in  the  House  of  Cor- 
rection for  drunkenness. 

22.  An  American  family  with  seven  children,  who  came  to  Chicago 
from  one  of  the  southern  states.     The  father  was  twenty-two  and  the 
mother  twenty  at  the  time  of  their  marriage.    The  father  died  of  melan- 
cholia.   The  mother  believes  that  this  girl  has  been  the  victim  of  adoles- 
cent insanity.    Neither  the  mother  nor  any  one  of  the  children  seems  to 
have  a  good  physical  constitution.   The  mother  formerly  kept  a  grocery 
store,  but  the  family  are  in  better  circumstances  now.    The  brothers  are 

322 


FAMILY    PARAGRAPHS   RELATING  TO   GIRLS 

pressmen  in  printing  offices,  and  two  of  the  children  are  married  and 
living  at  home.  This  girl  completed  the  eighth  grade  in  the  grammar  school 
and  attended  a  business  college  for  a  year.  At  the  age  of  sixteen  she 
became  incorrigible,  frequented  saloons  and  dram  shops,  and  when  brought 
into  court  admitted  her  immorality.  She  was  committed  to  Geneva  where 
she  remained  fourteen  months.  She  has  now  left  Geneva  and  is  married. 

23.  A  German  family  with  six  children,  one  of  whom  is  married. 
The  parents  were  married  when  the  father  was  twenty-nine  and  the  mother 
twenty-four.    The  father,  who  has  been  dead  six  years,  was  a  hod  carrier. 
He  drank  heavily  and  always  worked  irregularly,  earning  small  wages. 
The  mother  was  a  washwoman  and  earned  from  $5.00  to  $6.00  a  week 
until  the  children  got  old  enough  to  work.    One  brother  has  been  in  the 
Chicago  Parental  School  twice.     This  girl  went  to  work  at  the  age  of 
twelve  as  "general  help."   As  she  was  very  incompetent,  she  of  course  had 
very  hard  places  and  changed  them  often.    Later  she  went  downtown  to 
work  as  a  cash  girl  in  a  department  store,   and  the  mother  says  this 
was  "her  ruin"  because  she  associated  with  girls  who  taught  her  to  be 
immoral.    The  mother  says  that  the  father  had  always  been  cruel  to  the 
girl  before  he  died,  and  that  the  girl  had  a  violent  temper  like  his.    The 
mother  says  she  was  afraid  of  the  girl.    When  she  was  sixteen  years  old,  the 
girl  was  brought  into  court  by  a  police  officer  on  the  charge  of  keeping  bad 
company  and  associating  with  immoral  girls.    She  was  put  on  probation 
but  was  brought  in  again  six  months  later  on  the  charge  of  staying  away 
from  home  for  three  days  and  nights  and  returning  in  an  intoxicated 
condition.    She  admitted  that  she  had  stayed  at  a  low  hotel  in  bad  com- 
pany, and  was  committed  to  Geneva.    She  was  released  after  two  years, 
and  is  now  married  and  seems  to  be  happy  and  industrious. 

24.  This  girl's  parents  were  Swedish.   The  father  is  a  drunkard,  has 
the  cocaine  habit,  and  has  always  been  very  brutal  to  his  wife  and  children. 
He  worked  as  a  fireman  when  sober  and  was  a  good  worker,  but  he  never 
supported  the  family;    they  were  helped   by  a  relief  society  for  a  good 
many  years.     The  mother  committed  suicide  about  eight  years  ago  be- 
cause she  could  no  longer  endure  the  misery  of  her  life  with  her  husband. 
Five  years  later  this  girl  was  brought  into  court  by  a  probation  officer  as 
a  dependent  child  and  was  taken  away  from  her  father  because  of  his 
vulgarity  and  indecency,  but  was  released  under  the  care  of  a  probation 
officer.    She  was  later  brought  into  court  again  on  the  charge  of  being  out 
late  at  night,  and  was  sent  to  a  home  for  dependents  from  which  she  ran 
away  twice.    When  thirteen  years  old  she  was  brought  into  court  as  in- 
corrigible, acknowledged  she  had  been  immoral  and  was  sent  to  Geneva, 
where  she  has  been  for  six  months.    Both  of  her  brothers  have  been 
wards  of  the  court;   one  is  in  the  John  Worthy  School  and  one  is  in  the 
Chicago  Parental  School.    The  home  is  entirely  broken  up,  and  the  father 
sleeps  around  in  sheds  or  barns. 

25.  A  Russian-Jewish  family  with  five  children.     The  father  was 
eighteen  at  marriage  and  the  mother  twenty-one.    The  father  is  a  ladies' 
tailor,  who  once  had  the  habit  of  moving  and  changing  his  name  with  each 
move;  but  he  now  owns  his  own  business  and  seems  to  be  getting  on  well. 
Neither  father  nor  mother  takes  proper  care  of  the  children.     This  girl 

323 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 

was  allowed  to  sing  and  dance  in  five-cent  theaters,  and  both  proprietor 
and  patrons  had  immoral  relations  with  her  constantly,  giving  her  small 
sums  of  money  in  payment.  At  the  age  of  eleven,  the  child  became  known 
as  a  common  street  walker  and  pickpocket.  She  was  brought  into  court 
as  incorrigible  and  immoral  and  sent  to  Geneva,  where  she  has  been  for 
nearly  a  year.  She  is  said  to  be  a  degenerate. 

26.  This  girl  was  one  of  a  family  of  four  children,  with  an  American 
father  and  a  Dutch  mother.  The  parents  were  married  when  the  father  was 
twenty-two  and  the  mother  seventeen.    The  home  was  not  only  poor  and 
miserable  but  very  degraded.    The  father  was  a  steamfitter  by  trade,  but 
he  worked  very  little  and  was  constantly  drunk.    He  criminally  assaulted 
this  girl  when  she  was  only  eleven  years  old,  and  also  mistreated  the 
younger  sister.    The  mother  discovered  this  and  threatened  to  have  her 
husband  arrested,  but  he  deserted  to  avoid  prosecution.     The  children 
were  then  brought  into  court  as  dependents  and  sent  to  a  home  for  depen- 
dent girls.    The  mother  supported  herself  for  a  time  by  working  as  a  prac- 
tical nurse  but  later  went  to  live  with  her  mother.    The  children  were 
returned  to  live  in  their  grandmother's  home  also.     The  grandmother 
did  washing,  and  the  family  were  helped  by  a  charitable  society,  but  lived 
in  a  very  miserable  way.    A  few  years  ago  the  mother  married  again, 
but  her  second  husband  also  drank  and  was  very  cruel  to  her  and  to 
her  children,  and  she  'finally  left  him.    This  girl  worked  in  two  different 
department  stores  for  very  small  wages;    she  also  worked  in  a  factory 
for  two  months.    At  the  age  of  sixteen  she  was  brought  into  court  by  her 
mother  as  incorrigible.    She  had  run  away  and  there  was  evidence  that 
she  had  been  immoral;   she  was  sent  to  Geneva,  where  she  has  been  for 
six  months.     A  sister  was  brought  into  court  the  following  year,  also 
upon  the  charge  of  incorrigibility  and  immorality. 

27.  A  Polish  family  with  four  children.    The  father  was  twenty- 
seven  and  the  mother  thirty-two  at  the  time  of  marriage.    The  father 
has  learned  to  speak  a  little  English,  but  the  mother  speaks  only  Polish. 
The  father  has  steady  work  as  a  janitor.    The  mother  drinks  constantly 
and  the  home  is  not  only  poor  and  dirty  but  degraded.    Two  of  the  younger 
children  go  to  school,  but  work  out  of  school  hours  in  order  to  contribute 
a  dollar  a  month  each  to  the  family  support.    One  boy  is  now  in  the 
John  Worthy  School.    This  girl  was  taught  to  pick  pockets  when  she  was 
small  and  she  became  very  immoral  as  she  grew  up.    She  lived  for  a  time 
with  a  married  man,  and  then  led  a  low  rooming-house  life.    She  was 
first  brought  into  court  at  the  age  of  thirteen  for  picking  pockets,  and 
was  sent  to  an  institution  for  delinquent  girls,  but  was  kept  there  only 
two  weeks.    She  was  on  probation  for  two  years,  but  was  brought  into 
court  three  times  during  the  first  year  on  the  same  charge.    At  the  age  of 
fifteen  she  was  again  brought  into  court  on  the  charge  of  helping  another 
girl  steal  $4.00.    She  was  sent  to  Geneva  for  fifteen  months.    At  the  age 
of  seventeen  she  was  brought  in  for  immorality,  was  put  on  probation 
for  three  months,  and  then  sent  to  Geneva  again,  where  she  has  been  for 
the  last  six  months. 

28.  A  German  family  with  five  children.    Both  father  and  mother 
were  twenty-one  at  the  time  of  their  marriage.    The  father  was  a  police- 

324 


FAMILY    PARAGRAPHS    RELATING   TO   GIRLS 

man,  but  lost  his  position  because  of  a  row  that  occurred  while  he  was 
making  an  arrest  when  he  was  probably  drunk.  He  later  deserted  the 
family,  but  occasionally  comes  home  in  a  drunken  condition  and  is  very 
cruel  to  his  wife  and  children.  The  mother  works  hard  in  a  tailor  shop 
and  is  trying  to  support  herself  and  the  children  and  buy  a  home.  She 
suffers  from  a  blow  on  the  head  that  her  husband  gave  her  in  one  of 
his  visits.  She  is  harsh  with  the  children  and  has  beaten  them  so  much 
that  they  are  in  great  fear  of  her.  This  girl  was  extremely  irregular  in 
her  school  attendance  and  only  went  through  the  second  grade.  She  was 
put  to  work  in  a  tailor  shop  when  very  young.  The  grandfather  is 
miserly,  and  the  mother  cares  more  about  buying  her  home  than  about 
anything  else.  She  always  took  all  that  the  girl  earned,  made  her  work 
very  hard,  and  was  cruel  and  exacting.  When  the  girl  was  fifteen  years 
old,  she  ran  away  and  worked  as  an  office  girl  in  a  cheap  hotel.  She 
became  immoral  and  was  brought  into  court  and  sent  to  Geneva, 
where  she  remained  a  little  over  a  year.  She  has  now  been  home  for  a 
year  and  a  half  and  is  doing  well  and  giving  her  wages  to  her  mother. 

29.  An  American  family  with  three  children,  living  in  a  very  low,  im- 
moral neighborhood  and  in  a  dirty  home.  The  father,  who  was  a  teamster, 
assaulted  this  girl  and  was  sent  to  the  penitentiary  for  life.    The  mother 
is  a  wash  and  scrub  woman  but  she  works  very  little.    She  is  very  immoral 
and  lies  about  in  alleys  drunk  a  good  deal  of  the  time.    The  family  has 
always  received  charitable  assistance  and  has  never  been  self-supporting. 
At  the  age  of  fourteen  this  girl  was  brought  into  court  as  dependent  on 
the  charge  that  her  mother  was  taking  her  to  visit  winerooms  and  low 
saloons.    The  girl  was  evidently  being  used  for  immoral  purposes  and  was 
sent  to  Geneva,  where  she  has  been  for  about  three  years  and  a  half. 

30.  An  Irish-American  family  with  six  children.     Both  parents 
were  eighteen  at  the  time  of  marriage.     The  father  has  been  a  cattle 
butcher  in  the  stockyards  for  twenty  years  and  can  earn  good  wages,  but 
he  will  not  work.    He  deserted  the  family  at  one  time,  and  during  the  last 
two  years  he  has  done  so  little  for  them  that  they  have  been  almost  con- 
stantly dependent  on  the  help  given  by  a  charitable  society.    Two  brothers 
work  in  the  "Yards,"  one  has  run  away  from  home.    The  mother  has 
a  bad  reputation,  drinks  habitually,  keeps  a  dirty  home,  and  always 
has  her  house  full  of  disorderly  men.    This  girl,  when  fifteen,  was  taken 
by  her  mother  to  an  institution  for  delinquent  girls,  but  after  a  month 
the  mother  took  her  out  again  and  brought  her  home.    She  then  ran  away 
and  was  arrested  in  the  company  of  two  young  men  who  were  taking 
her  to  a  house  of  prostitution.     The  men  were  sent  to  the  House  of 
Correction,  and  the  girl,  who  admitted  that  she  had  already  been  im- 
moral, was  committed  to  Geneva  with  her  mother's  consent. 

31.  A   Russian-Jewish  family  with  eight  children.     The   home, 
which  was  in  a  very  poor  neighborhood,  was  dirty  and  vermin  infested. 
The  father  is  an  expressman  earning  good  wages,  but  both  parents  are 
avaricious  and  encouraged  the  girl  in  wrongdoing  so  long  as  she  brought 
her  earnings  home.    She  worked  in  a  candy  factory  for  a  while  but  her 
parents  did  not  think  she  earned  enough  money  and  wanted  her  to  get 
more.    When  she  was  brought  into  court  at  the  age  of  fifteen,  she  had 

22  325 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND   THE   HOME 

already  become  immoral,  had  rented  a  room  for  immoral  purposes,  and 
had  before  this  frequented  low  hotels.  She  was  first  put  on  probation 
for  six  months,  then  brought  into  court  again  on  the  same  charge  and 
sent  to  Geneva.  An  older  sister  had  been  in  court  five  years  before  for 
immorality  and  had  been  sent  to  Geneva.  Both  girls  improved  greatly 
at  Geneva.  The  older  one  is  married  and  doing  well.  This  girl  is  still  there. 

32.  A  German  family  in  which  there  are  six  children.    The  father 
was  twenty-two  and  the  mother  twenty-six  when  they  were  married. 
The  father  is  a  janitor,  drinks  habitually  and  has  a  violent  temper.    The 
mother,  who  speaks  English  very  poorly,  does  some  washing  at  home. 
The  home  is  clean,  and  except  for  the  father's  drinking,  both  parents 
seem  thrifty  and  decent.    This  girl  was  first  brought  into  court  when  she 
was  fifteen  years  old  on  the  charge  of  keeping  company  with  older  girls 
who  were  immoral.    She  was  put  on  probation,  but  her  father  was  very 
angry  and  told  her  to  stay  away  from  home.    The  father  has  always  been 
"hard  on  the  girl,"  the  [mother  says,  and  she  thinks  his  anger   "made 
her  worse."    She  used  to  go  to  see  her  mother  when  the  father  was  away. 
Within  a  year  she  was  brought  into  court  again,  this  time  on  the  charge  of 
entering  a  house  and  stealing  $2.25.    The  petition  also  stated  that  the 
girl  had  been  staying  away  from  home  and  there  were  evidences  of  her 
immorality.  She  was  sent  to  Geneva,  where  she  has  been  for  eight  months. 

33.  This  girl  is  the  daughter  of  a  German  father  and  an  Irish 
mother.    The  father  was  twenty-one  and  the  mother  nineteen  when  they 
were  married.     The  father  runs  a  machine  in  a  stone  yard  and  works 
regularly,  but  he  drinks  a  great  deal  and  is  very  "cranky"  and  quarrel- 
some with  his  wife.    They  have  had  ten  children,  of  whom  one  is  dead  and 
one  is  living  with  an  aunt.    This  girl  worked  in  a  factory  for  seven  months, 
labeling  cans,  then  she  picked  strawberries  for  a  while,  and  afterwards 
worked  for  a  time  in  a  bakery.    When  she  was  sixteen,  she  was  brought 
into  court  as  incorrigible;    she  had  been  away  from  home  for  several 
months  and  was  said  to  be  sleeping  in  unfinished  basements  and  asso- 
ciating with  vicious  persons.     She  had  been  connected  with  a  larceny 
offense  before  this.     She  was  first  put  on  probation,  but  nine  months 
later  she  was  brought  into  court  again  on  the  charge  of  immorality  and 
was  sent  to  Geneva,  where  she  remained  about  two  years  and  a  half. 
She  has  been  at  home  now  for  seven  months  and  is  doing  well. 

34.  A  Russian-Jewish  family  with  six  children.    The  father  was 
eighteen  and  the  mother  nineteen  at  the  time  of  marriage.    They  lived 
in  a  very  poor  neighborhood,  but  the  home  of  six  rooms  was  neat  and 
clean.    The  father  was  a  leather-polisher  and  could  earn  good  wages,  but 
he  was  a  hard  drinker  and  stayed  away  from  home  days  at  a  time,  leaving 
the  family  destitute.    They  were  helped  at  different  times  by  two  relief 
societies.    This  girl  never  worked,  but  when  small  was  allowed  to  sing  in 
five-cent  theaters.  She  was  brought  into  court  as  a  dependent  at  the  age  of 
six,  and  sent  to  a  home  for  dependent  girls  because  of  her  father's  drunken 
habits.    At  the  age  of  eleven,  she  was  brought  in  by  a  probation  officer 
as  delinquent  on  a  charge  of  immorality,  and  was  sent  to  Geneva.    She 
had  become  a  common  pickpocket,  was  very  immoral,  attended  five-cent 
theaters  and  sang  in  them.    The  parents  upheld  the  girl  and  said  she  was 

326 


FAMILY    PARAGRAPHS   RELATING  TO   GIRLS 

"all  right."  She  has  been  in  Geneva  nearly  a  year,  and  has  been  one  of 
the  most  troublesome  girls  there.  An  older  sister  was  also  brought  into 
court  on  the  charge  of  incorrigibility  and  associating  with  immoral  and 
vicious  persons,  but  she  was  put  on  probation. 

35.  A  German-American  family  with  four  children.     The  father 
was  twenty-three  and  the  mother  eighteen  at  the  time  of  marriage. 
The  mother  died  thirteen  years  ago  when  this  girl  was  born,  and  the  father 
then  deserted  the  children.    Two  of  them  were  adopted  by  relatives  and 
two  by  strangers.    This  girl  was  taken  to  live  with  an  aunt,  whose  husband 
criminally  assaulted  the  child  when  she  was  only  eleven  years  old.    The 
uncle  was  sent  to  the  penitentiary,  and  the  girl  was  given  to  another 
aunt,  who  did  not  like  her.    The  husband  of  this  aunt  was  a  laborer  at 
the  stockyards,  the  aunt  took  in  washing,  and  the  family  was  very  poor. 
The  girl  went  to  work  as  a  domestic  servant  when  she  was  only  twelve 
years  old,  and  the  aunt  complained  because  she  could  not  keep  the  places 
that  were  found  for  her.    At  the  age  of  thirteen  the  girl  was  taken  from  a 
house  of  prostitution  in  bad  physical  condition.    She  was  brought  into 
court  and  sent  to  Geneva  four  years  ago.    She  is  now  on  parole  and  seems 
to  be  doing  well. 

36.  This  girl's  parents  were  Bohemian.     At  marriage  the  father 
was  twenty-four  and  the  mother  twenty-one.    The  father  was  a  drunkard 
and  so  immoral  that  the  mother  left  him  and  came  to  America  with  her  two 
children.    They  lived  in  a  rear  basement  apartment  of  two  rooms,  and 
the  mother  did  washing.    The  father  came  over  after  seven  years,  but 
soon  deserted  his  wife,  stealing  all  that  she  had.    The  mother  then  got  a 
divorce  from  him,  married  another  Bohemian,  and  has  since  had  another 
child,  who  died.    When  this  girl  was  twelve  years  old,  she  was  brought 
into  court  by  a  probation  officer  for  stealing.    Her  mother  said  she  had 
been  deceiving  her  and  stealing  money  from  her,  and  had  been  staying  out 
late  at  night.    She  was  sent  to  an  institution  for  delinquent  girls,  but  after 
three  months  was  released  on  probation.    This  girl  left  school  when  she 
was  fourteen  and  had  finished  the  fifth  grade;  she  worked  out  for  a  few 
months  as  a  domestic  and  then  worked  in  a  candy  factory  and  in  a  cigar 
factory.    Before  she  was  fifteen  she  was  brought  into  court  again  on  the 
charge  of  incorrigibility.    Her  mother  complained  that  she  stole  from  her 
as  well  as  from  her  employers.    She  was  sent  to  Geneva. 

37.  A  German  family  with  three  children.  The  father  was  eighteen 
and  the  mother  nineteen  when  they  were  married;  they  immigrated 
seven  years  later.     The  mother  has  never  learned  to  speak  English. 
The  father  is  a  gasfitter,  earning  about  $10  a  week.     The  mother  worked 
in  a  restaurant  for  a  time,  but  it  is  no  longer  necessary.    She  was  always 
very  strict  with  this  girl  without  understanding  her.    The  father  was  also 
strict,   but  neither  knew  anything  of  her  associates  nor  attempted  to 
control  her  beyond  the  home.    She  lived  for  a  time  with  a  married  sister, 
but  finally  ran  away  and  lived  with  a  woman  who  kept  a  house  of  prosti- 
tution.    She  was  first  brought  into  court  by  her  parents  at  the  age  of 
fourteen  and  was  sent  to  an  institution  for  delinquent  girls  because  the 
parents  said  they  could  not  control  her  and  wished  her  placed  in  an  insti- 
tution.    When  she  was  seventeen,  her  father  brought  her  into  court 

327 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

again,  complaining  that  she  would  not  work,  kept  very  bad  company,  and 
was  immoral  and  incorrigible.  She.  was  in  wretched  physical  condition 
and  this  time  was  sent  to  Geneva,  where  she  has  been  for  nearly  a  year. 

38.  A  Russian-Jewish  family  of  six  children.  The  father  is  dead  and 
the  mother  has  moved  out  of  town.    The  father  was  a  pawnbroker,  and 
the  family  were  wealthy  at  one  time  and  lived  in  fashionable  residence 
districts;  they  still  are  quite  well  to  do.     The  four  girls  in  the  family 
were  never  allowed  to  attend  the  public  schools  but  were  sent  away  to 
private  boarding-schools.    The  eldest  girl  is  said  to  have  been  very  wild 
and  eloped  when  she  was  married.    The  two  next  younger  girls  are  both 
in  Geneva.    The  fourth  daughter,  who  remains  with  the  mother,  is  very 
peculiar.    The  parents  seemed  quite  helpless  in  the  bringing  up  of  their 
children.    The  mother  was  very  lenient  with  them  when  they  first  came 
from  boarding-school  and  then  suddenly  became  very  strict  and  allowed 
them  no  privileges.    The  older  of  the  two  girls  now  at  Geneva  was  im- 
moral with  a  young  man  who  was  a  member  of  the  same  social  group. 
The  family  first  knew  of  her  delinquency  when  at  the  age  of  fifteen  she 
became  pregnant.     After  her  child  was  born,  the  mother  appeared  in 
court  and  had  her  sent  to  Geneva,  where  she  has  been  for  over  a  year. 
The  younger  girl  was  brought  into  court  at  the  age  of  fourteen  for  incor- 
rigibility.    She  had  begun  to  stay  away  from  home  for  days  at  a  time, 
was  very  wild,  went  to  dance  halls,  was  flagrantly  immoral,  and  her 
parents  had  no  control  over  her.    She  was  put  on  probation,  but  returned 
to  court  two  months  later,  and  again  four  months  later,  and  was  finally 
sent  to  Geneva,  where  she  has  been  for  about  six  months.    The  two 
brothers  have  never  been  delinquent. 

39.  This  girl  was  the  only  child  of  very  respectable  German  parents. 
The  father  was  twenty-six  and  the  mother  twenty  when  they  were  married. 
They  are  decent,  industrious  people,  but  the  father  is  stingy  and  very 
domineering  with  his  wife  and  daughter.     He  has  never  allowed  the  wife 
any  voice  in  family  affairs.    The  family  lived  in  the  rear  of  a  good  tenement 
which  they  own.    The  girl  worked  as  a  stenographer,  but  was  allowed 
to  keep  almost  nothing  except  carfare  and  lunch  money.     The  father 
allowed  her  no  amusements  and  very  little  money.    When  the  girl  was 
fifteen,  she  ran  away  from  home.    She  was  placed  by  her  parents  in  an  in- 
stitution for  delinquent  girls,  although  she  had  never  been  immoral.    The 
girl  said  the  father  had  not  spoken  a  kind  word  to  her  for  five  years. 
When  she  was  seventeen,  she  forged  her  father's  name  to  a  post  office 
money  order  for  $300,  went  to  the  nearest  large  city  and  spent  the 
money  freely,  going  to  theaters  and  having  a  good  time.     She  was  ar- 
rested  and    brought  into  the  municipal  court,  but  was  released  to  a 
children's  aid  society.    She  went  into  domestic  service,  but  within  a 
few  weeks  stole  from  the  family  and  guests  of  the  house.      She  was 
then  brought  into  the  juvenile  court,  and  sent   to  Geneva.     She  has 
run  away  from  Geneva,  and  her  whereabouts  are  unknown.    The  parents 
say  she  is  unlucky  rather  than  bad,  but  they  are  unwilling  to  take  her 
back. 

40.  An  American  family  with  six  children.    The  father  was  twenty 
and  the  mother  twenty-three  at  the  time  of  their  marriage.    The  father 

328 


FAMILY    PARAGRAPHS   RELATING  TO  GIRLS 

seems  to  have  been  the  black  sheep  in  a  decent  family.  He  was  a  sign- 
painter  but  did  not  work  and  never,  supported  his  family.  The  mother 
was  a  low  sort  of  woman  who  neglected  her  children  in  every  way.  She 
is  said  to  have  been  a  "common  street  walker"  and  there  is  one  illegiti- 
mate child  in  the  family.  The  mother  died  of  cancer  in  the  county  hos- 
pital. The  father  deserted  the  children  after  the  mother  died  and  was 
generally  worthless  and  irresponsible.  While  the  mother  was  in  the  hos- 
pital, this  child  who  was  then  fourteen  was  brought  into  court  as  incorri- 
gible. She  was  released  and  put  on  probation,  to  live  with  a  married  sister. 
The  girl  would  not  stay  with  the  sister  as  the  court  directed,  grew  to  be 
very  immoral,  and  was  finally  sold  on  the  levee.  When  fifteen  years 
old,  she  was  taken  from  a  house  of  prostitution  by  the  police  and 
held  temporarily  in  the  county  jail;  she  was  brought  into  court  charged 
with  immorality  and  was  sent  to  Geneva,  where  she  has  been  a  little  less 
than  six  months.  An  older  sister,  who  was  married,  left  her  husband  and 
was  a  common  prostitute  for  a  time.  The  three  brothers  were  at  one  time 
in  a  home  for  dependents.  Two  of  them  have  gone  to  live  with  the  father, 
who  recently  remarried  and  now  lives  in  the  country.  One  is  in  an  insti- 
tution for  dependent  boys. 

41.  This  girl's  mother  and  father  were  German.    The  mother,  who 
is  now  dead,  was  the  father's  third  wife,  and  after  her  death  he  married 
again.    The  father  has  had  eighteen  children.     This  girl  had  one  sister 
who  has  "gone  bad"  and  is  not  allowed  to  come  home.     The  father  is  a 
"handy  man"  in  a  saloon,  earning  very  low  wages.     The  present  wife 
had  a  store,  and  the  father  helped  her  in  the  store  and  lived  with  her  for 
a  year  before  they  were  married.    This  girl  is  not  normally  bright.    She 
had  immoral  relations  with  the  boys  in  the  neighborhood  and  was  con- 
sidered a  contaminating  influence  in  school  when  she  was  quite  small. 
At  the  age  of  twelve  she  was  brought  into  court,  acknowledged  her  im- 
morality, and  was  sent  to  Geneva  where  she  has  been  for  two  years. 

42.  A  colored  family  in  which  both  mother  and  father  had  been 
married  before.    The  mother  had  six  children  from  her  former  marriage; 
the  father  one.    This  girl  is  the  oldest  of  three  children  of  this  marriage. 
The  family  came  from  the  country  about  six  years  ago.     The  father 
is  a  foreman  in  a  stable,  and  the  mother  goes  out  washing.    The  father 
is  very  severe  with  the  children,  beats  them  a  great  deal,  and  threatened 
to  kill  this  girl  because  of  her  misbehavior.    They  have  always  been  very 
much  afraid  of  him.    The  home  was  clean  but  crowded;   and  the  neigh- 
borhood was  very  disreputable.    This  girl  left  school  when  she  was  fifteen 
and  in  the  seventh  grade,  and  took  a  position  at  housework.     Finally 
when  she  was  sixteen,  she  was  brought  into  court  on  the  charge  of  stealing 
from  her  employer.    She  was  put  on  probation,  but  in  a  short  time  she 
was  again  accused  of  stealing  and  of  being  immoral.     At  her  father's 
request  she  was  arrested  and  brought  into  court  from  a  low  rooming  house, 
and  was  sent  to  Geneva,  where  she  has  been  for  nearly  a  year.     She  had 
been  in  several  different  immoral  places  and  had  been  transferred  from 
one  to  another,  so  that  her  parents  traced  her  with  difficulty. 

43.  This  girl  is  the  older  of  two  children  of  American  parents. 
The  father  was  twenty-three  and  the  mother  twenty-one  at  the  time  of 

329 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 

marriage.  The  father  was  an  electrical  engineer,  but  never  worked  and 
was  evidently  a  worthless  person.  He  deserted  the  family  seven  years 
ago,  just  before  the  birth  of  the  second  child,  and  has  recently  been  in  the 
penitentiary.  After  his  desertion  the  mother  received  charitable  assis- 
tance for  two  years  and  most  of  the  time  went  out  to  work,  leaving  the 
children  in  charge  of  a  neighbor,  who  did  not  treat  them  properly.  The 
mother  has  a  very  unsavory  reputation  and  now  keeps  a  low-grade  room- 
ing house  in  a  questionable  neighborhood.  She  used  to  beat  the  children 
cruelly,  and  she  wants  to  get  rid  of  the  younger  child,  whom  she  asks  to 
have  put  into  a  home.  She  brought  this  girl  into  court  at  the  age  of  nine, 
saying  that  she  was  incorrigible,  stayed  away  from  home,  and  was  out 
late  at  night.  The  child  has  never  finished  the  second  grade  but  has  been 
examined  by  the  child-study  department  and  is  said  not  to  be  subnormal. 
When  she  was  brought  into  court,  there  was  evidence  of  her  immorality 
with  the  boys  of  the  neighborhood;  and  the  court  sent  her  to  Geneva, 
where  she  has  been  for  almost  two  years.  • 

44.  A  family  of  Polish  Jews  with  thirteen  children.  The  father 
was  twenty-one  and  the  mother  twenty  at  marriage.    The  father,  who  had 
been  a  lawyer  in  the  old  country,  became  a  drunkard,  and  deserted  the 
family  six  years  ago.  The  mother  has  tried  to  take  care  of  the  children  since 
then  by  washing  and  cleaning.  They  lived  in  a  poor,  dirty,  crowded  home 
and  were  forced  to  apply  to  a  charitable  society  for  aid.  This  girl  worked 
for  several  years  in  different  cheap  department  stores  and  was  afterwards 
an  artist's  model.     She  got  into  bad  company  and  then  became  very 
immoral.    At  the  age  of  sixteen  she  was  brought  into  court  for  incorrigi- 
bility  and  was  sent  to  Geneva  nearly  a  year  and  a  half  ago  and  is  still  there. 

45.  A  decent,   industrious  Swedish  family  with  eight  children, 
of  whom  this  girl  is  the  eldest.     The  parents  were  married  when  the 
father  was  twenty-three  and  the  mother  twenty-one.    Both  parents  have 
constantly  suffered  from  ill  health.    The  father  was  a  fireman  at  one  time, 
and  they  owned  their  own  home  and  were  "pretty  well  off."    They  lost 
the  home  under  a  mortgage  while  the  father  was  ill,  and  not  long  after- 
wards he  lost  his  job  and  they  have  had  hard  times  ever  since.    He  could 
get  only  unskilled  work  after  this  and  earned  very  low  wages,  so  that  the 
mother  had  to  go  out  washing  and  cleaning.    When  the  mother  was  work- 
ing away  from  home  she  had  to  leave  the  children  alone.    This  girl  left 
school  at  the  age  of  fourteen,  when  in  the  sixth  grade,  and  has  worked 
ever  since.    She  had  several  places  as  a  domestic  servant  and  then  was  a 
department-store  clerk.    She  began  to  be  very  difficult  to  manage.    She 
was  not  good  to  her  mother  and  neglected  her  when  she  was  ill.    It  was 
said  she  frequented  skating-rinks  where  she  met  immoral  people.    When 
she  was  eighteen  years  old,  she  was  brought  into  court  as  incorrigible 
and  committed  to  Geneva.    The  mother  says  that  the  girl  got  into  bad 
company  while  at  work  and  that  she  had  never  been  troublesome  before. 
She  has  been  at  Geneva  for  nearly  a  year. 

46.  A  German  family  with  seven  children.    The  father  was  twenty 
and  the  mother  eighteen  when  they  were  married.     Both  parents  were 
intemperate.    The  mother  died  seven  years  ago,  probably  as  a  result  of 
excessive  drinking,  and  the  father,  who  has  remarried,  is  so  worthless 

330 


FAMILY    PARAGRAPHS    RELATING  TO   GIRLS 

and  drunken  and  has  such  a  violent  temper,  that  the  stepmother 
wants  to  divorce  him.  The  present  home  is  a  comfortable  one  in 
a  good  neighborhood,  but  both  house  and  furniture  belong  to  the  step- 
mother. The  stepmother  brought  these  two  girls  into  court  when  the 
younger  one  was  eleven  and  the  older  one  thirteen.  They  were  said  to 
be  incorrigible  and  to  be  guilty  of  continued  immorality.  They  were 
both  sent  to  Geneva,  where  they  have  been  for  three  years.  These  girls 
have  an  older  sister,  who  has  the  cocaine  habit  and  is  not  a  good  girl; 
she  does  not  live  at  home.  An  older  brother  is  an  ex-convict;  a  younger 
brother  is  a  ward  of  the  court  and  at  one  time  was  committed  to  the  John 
Worthy  School.  The  stepmother  says  that  her  children,  two  boys,  are 
good,  but  that  her  present  husband's  children  are  all  bad  except  for  one 
fifteen-year-old  boy. 

47.  A  Canadian  family  with  two  children.    The  father  was  nine- 
teen and  the  mother  sixteen  at  the  time  of  marriage.    The  father  deserted 
the  family  and  came  to  the  United  States,  but  the  mother  followed  him 
with  her  two  children.    They  were  divorced  later,  and  the  father  took  the 
children  and  went  to  live  with  his  brother.    The  mother  supported  herself, 
probably  by  leading  an  immoral  life,  but  she  is  now  remarried  and  has  a 
comfortable  home.    The  father  drank  and  did  not  look  after  the  children, 
and  the  relations  between  the  aunt  and  this  girl  were  very  unpleasant. 
The  girl  became  immoral  and  earned  money  in  this  way.    She  had  had  two 
illegal  operations  before  she  was  brought  into  court.    She  was  then  seven- 
teen years  old  and  in  the  eighth  grade  at  school.    The  special  charge  against 
her  was  that  she  had  been  found  in  disorderly  company  with  a  revolver 
on  her  person.    She  was  known  to  associate  with  the  lowest  characters. 
She  was  committed  to  Geneva,  and  after  she  had  been  there  two  years 
she  was  released.     She  is  now  on  parole  and  is  believed  to  be  doing  well. 

48.  A  German-Jewish  family  with  seven  children.    The  father  was 
twenty-three  and  the  mother  twenty  at  the  time  of  their  marriage.    The 
father  is  an  habitual  drunkard,  and  has  never  supported  the  family.    He 
deserts  periodically  but  always  comes  back  and  promises  to  do  better. 
He  is  supposed  to  be  a  fruit  peddler  but  is  really  a  common  tramp,  very 
brutal  to  his  wife  and  children  when  he  is  at  home,  and  is  guilty  of  crim- 
inally assaulting  the  two  older  daughters.     The  mother,  who  speaks 
English  slightly,  is  a  poor  hardworking  woman.    She  has  always  tried  to 
support  the  children  and  still  takes  in  washing.    During  a  period  of  nearly 
twenty  years  the  family  has  been  helped  at  different  times  by  the  county 
and  by  three  different  relief  societies.    The  older  sister  of  this  girl  is  very 
immoral,  steals  from  the  mother,  and  abuses  the  younger  children.    She 
was  at  one  time  in  a  refuge.    This  girl  did  well  in  school,  but  at  the  age  of 
fifteen  she  was  sent  to  sell  matches  on  the  street,  and  a  man  took  her  to  a 
house  of  prostitution  and  kept  her  there  two  weeks.    She  was  found  by  a 
policeman  and  was  brought  into  court  and  sent  to  Geneva,  where  she  has 
been  for  nearly  eight  months. 

49.  A  Russian-Jewish  family  with  five  children.    The  father  was 
thirty-eight  and  the  mother  nineteen  at  the  time  of  marriage.     They 
came  to  this  country  when  this  girl  was  ten  years  old.    The  mother  has 
never  learned  to  speak  English.    They  have  a  very  untidy  home  and  have 

331 


THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOME 

always  lived  in  a  very  congested  neighborhood  where  there  are  many 
cheap  amusement  places.  The  father,  who  is  now  an  old  man,  this  girl, 
and  one  of  her  sisters  have  worked  in  a  tobacco  factory.  This  girl,  who 
completed  only  the  third  grade  at  school,  was  brought  into  court  at  the 
age  of  fifteen  as  incorrigible,  because  she  was  staying  out  very  late  at 
night,  going  to  dance  halls,  and  associating  with  vicious  persons.  She 
was  a  menace  in  the  neighborhood  because  she  was  also  leading  other 
young  girls  astray.  She  was  sent  to  Geneva.  The  parents  did  not  seem 
to  understand  the  misfortune  that  had  befallen  the  girl  and  were  not  very 
much  interested  in  what  became  of  her.  They  merely  said  she  was  "all 
right."  After  about  a  year  and  a  half  at  Geneva  the  girl  was  returned  to 
her  home.  She  has  been  working  steadily  and  seems  to  be  a  "good  girl." 

50.  A  German  family  with  five  children.  The  father  was  twenty- 
six  and  the  mother  twenty-four  when  they  were  married,  and  they  came 
to  this  country  before  the  birth  of  this  girl.  The  father,  who  was  a  stone- 
cutter by  trade  and  drank  heavily,  died  nine  years  ago,  and  the  mother 
has  had  a  hard  time  taking  care  of  the  family.  She  used  to  go  out  washing 
and  tried  to  support  the  family  in  this  way.  The  children  have  not 
helped  her  as  much  as  they  should.  One  of  the  sons  is  like  the  father  and 
drinks  heavily  and  is  so  abusive  when  drunk  that  he  is  not  allowed  to 
stay  at  home.  At  the  age  of  fifteen  this  girl  could  neither  read  nor  write. 
Her  mother  brought  her  into  court  when  she  was  fifteen,  charging  that 
she  was  incorrigible  and  spent  her  time  loitering  about  the  railroad  tracks 
in  bad  company.  She  admitted  that  she  had  been  immoral  and  was  sent 
to  Geneva,  but  after  she  had  been  there  two  years  her  mother  asked  to 
have  her  released  because  her  wages  were  needed  at  home.  The  girl, 
however,  has  not  worked  well;  she  has  had  several  places  as  a  domestic 
servant  and  has  tried  factory  work  since  her  return,  but  shows  an  incli- 
nation to  go  back  to  her  old  habits.  She  gives  her  mother  all  her  wages 
when  she  works. 


332 


APPENDIX  VI 

COPIES  OF  SCHEDULES  USED  IN  THE  INQUIRY* 
Instructions  to  Investigators 


You  will  probably  best  introduce  yourself  to  the  families  by  remembering  the  following  facts: 

1.  The  sole  purpose  of  this  inquiry  is  to  serve  the  interests  of  neglected  children. 

2.  You  have  been  appointed  a  probation  officer  because  this  purpose  is  recognized  by  Judge  Tuthill 
the  Juvenile  Court,  and  he  will  use  the  facts  upon  these  schedules  in  determining  whether  an  order  of 
charge  from  probation  should  be  entered  in  cases  still  open. 

3.  While  the  fact  that  you  are  a  special  probation  officer  should  be  stated  to  the  child  and  parents 
enever  probably  helpful  in  establishing  a  good  understanding,  and  while  the  dignity  and  value  to  the 
ild  of  such  formal  discharge  by  the  court  should  be  emphasized;  yet  it  must  be  constantly  borne  in 
nd  that  your  success  in  filling  the  schedules  depends  upon  your  courtesy  and  tact  and  respectful  con- 
eration  and  not  upon  your  authority. 

Try  to  engage  in  conversation  which  follows  in  rather  close  order  the  succession  of  the  questions  on 
j  schedule.  The  order  of  these  questions  has  been  arranged  with  a  view  to  the  natural  and  easy  de- 
opment  of  a  conversation  disclosing  the  facts  sought. 

For  the  field  work. 

SCHEDULE  I  is  to  be  completed  with  Schedule  II  and  Schedule  III. 

SCHEDULE  II  is  to  be  filled  by  the  investigator  from  the  information  obtained  by  visit  to  the  home 
1  interviews  with  the  child,  parents  and  other  members  of  the  family  or  neighbors  from  whom  it  is 
.cticable  to  secure  information. 
:  SCHEDULE  III  is  to  be  filled  from  information  obtained  from  probation  officers  or  employers. 

In  visiting  employers  do  not  say  anything  reflecting  upon  the  child  concerning  whom  you  wish  to 
inquire,  and  only  if  necessary  to  your  purpose  state  that  he  is  or  has  been  a  ward  of  the  Juvenile 
Court,  in  no  case  stating  his  offence,  but  merely  indicating  that  you  have  been  directed  to  learn  of  his 
progress. 

The  questions  are  divided  into  two  classes;  (a)  Those  like  i,  and  17  to  26  on  Schedule  1 1  which  are 
be  answered  by  direct  quotation  or  observation  without  any  expression  of  opinion  by  investigator  and 
Those  like  27,  28,  64  and  68  which  necessitate  an  opinion  from  the  investigator. 

In  answering  questions  under  (b)  the  investigator  will  state  as  far  as  possible  facts  forming  basis  for 
opinion  as  well  as  opinion  itself,  e.  g.  in  answering  No.  28,  specify  such  particulars  as  stoppage  of 
drains  or  water  supply,  leaks  in  plumbing,  foul  or  insufficient  closets,  uncollected  garbage,  dirty  alleys 
or  street.  Do  not  say  without  details  "sanitary  conditions  poor." 

In  obtaining  answers  to  such  questions  as  23,  64,  65,  66,  your  success  depends  especially  upon  your 
tfulness. 

To  aid  in  securing  specific  answers  to  i  and  67,  parents  may  be  asked  if  being  newsboy,  or  selling  at 
(ht,  staying  in  News  Alley  at  night  or  doing  any  work  away  from  home  at  night  was  bad  for  boy. 

School  Statement 

It  is  especially  important  to  secure  the  School  Statement  in  every  case  filled  out  by  the  child  inde- 
idently  in  the  presence  of  the  investigator. 

The  purpose  of  this  statement  is  to  obtain  a  clear  indication  of  the  child's  command  of  the  English 
guage.  In  answering  2  and  3  persuade  him  to  put  down  all  he  will.  If  he  can't  do  more  have  him 
te  "don't  know"  or  in  some  way  secure  an  attempt  at  written  words. 

Do  not  allow  him  to  sign  name. 

If  child  can't  write  English  but  can  write  some  other  language  have  statement  filled  out  as  he  can. 

Keep  the  statement  when  filled  with  schedule  to  which  it  belongs  and  at  the  first  opportunity  insert 
C  No.  in  space  at  top. 

If  he  has  attended  night  school  since  going  to  work  have  him  state  what  he  learned  and  whether  he 
nks  it  helped  him. 

*  It  has  been  thought  best  not  to  publish  copies  of  two  schedules  dealing  with  the  Delinquent 
'1  where  Delinquency  Involves  Sex  Relationship.  Anyone  engaged  in  a  similar  inquiry  may  obtain 
l>ies  of  these  schedules  from  the  Chicago  School  of  Civics  and  Philanthropy. 

333 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 


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334 


3SVD    dO    AUOJLSIH 


SCHEDULES   USED   IN   THE   INQUIRY 
Name  of  Investigator Case  Number . 

SCHEDULE  II— FAMILY 

I  Comments  of  parents  on  child's  progress  under  probation? 


2  Present  habits  of  child — industriousness,  dutifulness,  reading,  drink,  gambling,  morality,  drugs, 
tobacco?.... 


3  Reciprocal  attitude  of  parents  and  child?  (e.  g.  Who  spends  the  child's  wages?). 

Recreation 


4  Present  associates? 

5  Present  amusements? 

6  Belongs  to  what  gangs,  clubs,  societies,  if  any?. 


7  Special  recreation  facilities  within  reach  of  child,  good  and  bad?. 


8  In  what  respects  were  these  features  different  in  the  past?. 


Relation  to  Probation  Officer 

9  Did  child  visit  probation  officer,  or  probation  officer  visit  child? 


335 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 
10  Frequency  of  each  kind  of  visit? 


1  1  Which  better,  and  why? 


12  Material  aid,  if  any,  secured  for  child  or  family  by  probation  officer? 


13  Work  secured  for  child  by  probation  officer? 

14  Pleasure  outings  secured  for  child  by  probation  officer? 


15  Additional  comments  of  parents  on  services  of  probation  officer 


16  Record  of  child  in  other  courts  and  institutions.     (Record  on  Schedule  I) 

Dwelling 


I? 

18 

'9 

2O 

21 

22 

23 

24 

25 

26 

DATE 

Back 
or 
Front? 

What 

How 
many 
Rooms? 

How 
many 
Stoves? 

Closet 
Loca- 
tion? 

Tub? 

Rent 
How 
much? 

Owned 
by 
Family? 

Amount 
of  Mort- 
gage? 

How 
much 
Sub-Leti 

a.   1900 

*b. 

c.   At  present 

*  Write  here  the  date  of  child's  first  appearance  in  court. 

27  Note  condition  of  present  dwelling  as  to  cleanliness  and  furnishings 


28  If  sanitary  conditions  of  house  and  neighborhood  are  notably  bad,  specify  particulars. 


29  If  morals  of  house  and  neighborhood  are  notably  bad,  specify  particulars 


336 


SCHEDULES   USED   IN   THE    INQUIRY 

Family 


30 

3' 

32 

33 

34 

35 

Years  in 

Years  in 

Age  at 

Speak 

Write 

Read 

U.S. 

Chicago 

Marriage 

English 

English 

English 

i.    Father 

/ 

2 

17   ^ 

T/A/i 

" 

(fr 

£ 

c\j£) 

9.     Mother 

7 

••"/"' 

, 

16  Where  in  U.  S.  besides  Chicago  have  father  or  mother  lived  and  for  how  long  in  each  place?.. 


17  Did  father  and  mother  live  in  city  or  country  before  coming  to  U.  S.?. 
I- 


(8  Occupation  of  father  before  immigration 

[9  Occupation  of  mother  before  immigration .-. 

\o  If  there  has  been  sickness,  consumption,  accident  or  special  distress  in  family  at  different 
times,  note  its  character,  whether  incidental  to  employment,  and  its  effect  on  earnings  and 
family  comfort 


Is  there  known  insanity,  epilepsy,  feeble  mindedness,  or  other  nervous  disorders  among  near 
relatives  or  members  of  the  family?    Specify 


What  membership  among  members  of  family  in  insurance  or  benefit  societies,  or  unions? 


13  What  relief  has  there  been,  at  what  dates  and  from  what  sources — benefit  societies,  unions 
etc.?.... 


337 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND  THE   HOME 
Present  Family  Status 


44 
Family 
Relation- 
ship 
F.M.B.S. 

45 

Age 
Last 
Birth- 
day 

46 

Living 
with 
Family 

47 
Industry 

48 
Occupation 

49 
How 
long  has 
child 
worked? 

50 

Earn 
per 
week 

51 
Amt.  con- 
tributed 
to  family 
per  week 

52 

Cause 
of 
Death 

a  

b  

c  

d  

e  

f  

h  

i  

j.  .. 

k  

1  

53  What  members  of  family  worked  and  what  their  occupations  in* 

(Record  on  Schedule  I.) 

54  What  members  of  family  worked  and  what  their  occupations  and  incomes  in  1900,  if  at 
such  date  they  differed  from  both  the  present  and* 

'Insert  date  of  child's  first  appearance  in  court. 


Child 

School  history,  past  and  present,  last  grade,  dates  and  record?     (Record  on  Schedule  I.) 
(School  statement  to  be  made  out  by  child  in  presence  of  investigator.) 


55 


Employment  History 


Dates 

56 

Industry 

57 
Occupation 

58 

Duration 
of 
occupation 

59 
Hours  of 
beginning 
and  ending 
labor 
per  day 

60 
Hours  of 
beginning 
and  ending 
labor 
per  night 

61 

No.  of 
weeks  per 
year  of 
night 
work 

62 

Usual 
earnings 
per  week 

a.   Present. 

b. 

c. 

d 

e 

f. 

g.    While  at  School 
h. 

338 


SCHEDULES   USED   IN   THE   INQUIRY 
63  Has  child  had  any  injury  or  illness  due  to  employment  or  accident?    Give  particulars. 


64  What  are  the  habits  of  the  members  of  the  family  as  to  drink,  gambling,  immorality,  indus- 
triousness,  reading,  amusements,  etc.? 


65  Note  in  what  respects  these  habits  differed  in  the  past. 


66  Criminal  record,  if  any,  of  other  members  of  the  family?. 


67  What  were  the  strongest  influences  in  making  the  child  a  delinquent? 

a.  In  Father's  opinion 

b.  In  Mother's  opinion 

c.  In  Investigator's  opinion 

68  What  were  the  strongest  influences  in  the  improvement  of  the  child's  conduct?. 

a.  In  Father's  opinion 

b.  In  Mother's  opinion 

c.  In  Investigator's  opinion 

339 


THE   DELINQUENT  CHILD   AND   THE   HOME 
Name  of  Investigator Case  Number.. 

SCHEDULE  III— PROBATION 

1.  Comments  of  probation  officer  on  child's  progress 


2.  Present  habits  of  child — industriousness,  dutifulness,  reading,  drink,  gambling, 
morality,  drugs,  tobacco? 


3.  Record  of  child  in  other  courts  and  institutions.     (Record  on  Schedule  I.) 

4.  What  were  the  usual  dealings  of  officer  with  child  during  visits  or  interviews?. 


5.  Co-operation  of  probation  officer  with  parents,  school,  church,  employer? 


6.  Did  child  visit  probation  officer,  or  probation  officer  visit  child?. 

7.  Frequency  of  each  kind  of  visit? 

8.  Which  better,  and  why? 


9.  Material  aid  or  benefits,  if  any,  secured  for  child  or  family  by  probation  officer? 

10.  Work  secured  for  child  by  probation  officer? 

340 


SCHEDULES    USED    IN    THE    INQUIRY 

1 1 .  Pleasure  outings  secured  for  child  by  probation  officer?. 


1 2.  Has  child  been  under  care  of  regular,  volunteer  or  police  probation  officer?. 

13.  Probation  officer's  attitude  towards  child?.... 


14.  Reciprocal  attitude  of  parents  and  child?  (e.  g.  Who  spends  the  child's  wages?) 

Recreation. 


15.  Present  associates? 

16.  Present  amusements? 

17.  Belongs  to  what  gangs,  clubs,  societies?. 


18.  Special  recreation  facilities  within  reach  of  child,  good  and  bad?. 

19.  I  n  what  respects  were  these  features  different  in  the  past? 


Habits  and  Health. 

20.  What  are  the  habits  of  the  members  of  the  family  as  to  drink,  gambling,  im- 

norality,  industriousness,  reading,  amusements,  etc.? 


21.  Note  in  what  respects  those  habits  differed  in  the  past. 


341 


THE    DELINQUENT   CHILD   AND  THE    HOME 


22.  If  there  has  been  sickness,  consumption,  accident  or  special  distress  in  family  at 
different  times,  note  its  date,  character,  whether  incidental  to  employment,  and  itsi 
effect  on  earnings  and  family  comfort I 


23.  Is  there  known  insanity,  epilepsy,  feeble  mindedness  or  other  nervous  disorders 
among  near  relatives  or  members  of  the  family? 


24.  Criminal  record,  if  any,  of  other  members  of  the  family. 


25.  What  in  the  opinion  of  the  probation  officer  were  the  strongest  influences  in 
making  the  child  a  delinquent? 


26.  What  in  the  opinion  of  the  probation  officer  were  the  strongest  influences  in  the 
improvement  of  the  child's  conduct? 


27.  What  is  the  child's  record  with  his  present  or  latest  employer?. 


342 


SCHEDULES   USED   IN   THE   INQUIRY 


SCHOOL    STATEMENT. 

1.    I  am I  \S yean  old.    I  left  school  when  I  vas — Uf- 

/  was  then  in  the 0   grade.    I  began  to  go  to  school  when  I  was 

tf years  old. 


2,     In  Chicago  I  haoe  attended  the 

AtLttL 


- < schools. 

3.     The  studies  which  have  helped  me  most  to  earn  money  are 


343 


INDEX 


INDEX 


ABANDONMENT.    See   Desertion 

ABNORMAL  CHILDREN:  relation  to 
delinquency,  18,  160,  161,  169,  172, 
173,  199 

ACCREDITED  INSTITUTIONS.  See  Insti- 
tutions 

ADDAMS,  JANE,  157,  159 

ADJUSTMENT  TO  CONDITIONS  of  Ameri- 
can life:  problem  for  foreigners, 
55-57,  62-69 

ADMINISTRATION  BOARD.  See  Board  of 
A  dministration 

ADOPTION  OF  CHILDREN,  209,  216,  217 
AGE  CERTIFICATE.  See  Working  Papers 

AGE  LIMIT  in  Juvenile  Court  Law,  12, 
23,  25 

AGE  OF  BOYS:  brought  to  court,  1899- 
1909,  24,  26;  brought  to  court  not 
entitled  to  working  papers,  139; 
entering  and  leaving  school,  128, 
129;  from  comfortable  homes,  167; 
previously  committed,  3;  sent  to 
the  Bridewell,  3;  truant,  141 

AGE  OF  CRIMINAL  RESPONSIBILITY,  185, 
189,  195,  204,  205 

AGE  OF  GIRLS:  brought  to  court,  1899- 
1909,  24,  26;  at  time  of  commit- 
ment to  institutions,  143 

AGE  OF  PARENTS:  foreign  born,  at 
immigration,  63;  at  time  of  mar- 
riage, 123-125 

AMIGH,  OPHELIA,  6,  44 

ANGEL  GUARDIAN  ORPHAN  ASYLUM, 
46,  214,  216 

APPRENTICESHIP  AND  SKILLED  EMPLOY- 
MENT ASSOCIATION,  London,  80 


BAD  BOYS:  criminalized  by  old  methods 
of  dealing  with  their  offenses,  186, 


BAD  BOYS  (Continued) 

187;  who  cannot  be  explained 
away,  subjects  for  investigation  by 
Juvenile  Psychopathic  Institute, 
160,  161,  169,  172,  173 

BATHING  BEACHES,  155 
BIDWELL,  JOSEPH  R.,  JR.,  6 
BLIND-ALLEY  OCCUPATIONS,  74,  80 
BOARD  OF  ADMINISTRATION,  218-220 

BOARD  OF  ADMINISTRATION  ACT,  1909: 
provides  for  accredited  institutions, 
214-216 

BOARD  OF  COMMISSIONERS  OF  PUBLIC 
CHARITIES,  215 

BOARD  OF  CONTROL,  220 
BOARD  OF  EDUCATION,  2 

BOARD  OF  PUBLIC  CHARITIES  ACT,  214, 
218 

BOARDING-OUT  CHILDREN,  9 
BOOTH  CLASSIFICATION,  70-73 

BOYS:  between  fourteen  and  sixteen, 
problem  of,  131,  132,  138,  140,  141. 
See  also  Bad  Boys;  Delinqiient  Chil- 
dren; Unmanageable  Boy;  and  other 
general  headings 

BRIDEWELL:  age  of  boys  at  commit- 
ment, 3;  fines  imposed  upon  boys, 
i,  2;  its  failure  to  improve  condi- 
tions, 1,4;  number  of  boys  sent  to, 
2;  previous  commitments  to,  3 

BUSSE,  WILLIAM,  6 


CHANCERY  COURTS:  jurisdiction  for 
protection  of  children,  181,  182, 
189,  194,  196,  197,  200,  203 

CHARGES.    See  Offenses 


347 


INDEX 


CHARITIES  BOARD.  See  Board  of  Public 
Charities 

CHICAGO  INDUSTRIAL  SCHOOL  FOR  GIRLS, 
40,  218 

CHICAGO  SCHOOL  OF  Civics  AND  PHI- 
LANTHROPY, 6,  14,  80 

CHILD  LABOR  LAW:  establishment  of, 
1903-04, 137-139;  restrictions  which 
would  add  to  the  efficacy  of  the 
Act,  138,  175 

CHILD-STUDY  DEPARTMENT:  connected 
with  the  Juvenile  Court,  199. 
See  also  Juvenile  Psychopathic 
Institute 

CHILD  WAGE-EARNERS:  eldest  or  young- 
est, effect  in  relation  to  delinquency, 
116,  117;  employments  of  boys,  74, 
75;  employments  of  and  dangers 
to  girls,  76-81;  exploitation  of,  by 
avaricious  parents,  81-83,  184-185; 
girls  as  wage-earners,  96;  heavy 
burden  of  responsibility,  74,  116, 
117;  parental  right  to  child's  wages, 
31,  80-83,  89,  183-185 

CHILD  WITHOUT  PLAY:  relation  to 
delinquency,  150-159 

CHILDREN.  See  Delinquent;  Dependent; 
Neglected:  Truant 

CHILDREN'S  BILL,  ENGLISH,  194,  201 

CHILDREN'S  CHARTER,  ENGLISH,  187, 
188 

CHILDREN'S  HOME  AND  AID  SOCIETY. 
See  Illinois  Children's  Home  and 
Aid  Society 

CHURCH:  as  an  organization  fails  in 
moral  care  of  the  young,  45,  46 

CHURCH  HOMES:  for  dependent  chil- 
dren, 46 

CITY  PRISON.     See  Bridewell 

Civic  NEGLECT:  largely  responsible  for 
delinquency,  46 

CIVIL  SERVICE  COMMISSION:  testimony 
of  Judge  Pinckney  concerning  the 
Juvenile  Court,  202-246 

CLASSIFICATION  OF  CHILDREN  according 
to  statute  law,  1 1 

CLASSIFICATION  OF  FAMILIES  into  eco- 
nomic groups,  70-74,  170-173 


COLORED  RACE.    See  Negroes 

COMFORTABLE  HOME.  See  Unmanage- 
able Boy 

COMMITMENT  denned,  215,  217 

COMMON  LAW:  fixes  age  of  criminal 
responsibility,  185,  187;  parental 
obligations  under,  182-185.  See 
also  Criminal  Jurisprudence 

COMPULSORY  EDUCATION:  evasion  of 
law  tends  to  delinquency,  131-133, 
142;  failure  of  foreign  parents  to 
understand,  64,  66,  69,  130,  139, 
184;  legal  school  age,  127-133; 
necessity  for  better  provision  for 
boys  between  fourteen  and  sixteen, 
132,  133;  new  law  enforced,  1903- 
04,  138-140;  punishment  for  par- 
ents who  evade  the  law,  139.  See 
also  School  Attendance 

CONGESTED  DISTRICTS,  150-153,  158; 
map,  152 

CONTROL,  BOARD  OF.  See  Board  of 
Control 

COOK  COUNTY  COMMISSIONERS,  6 

COUNTRY  LIFE:  degraded  conditions  of, 
107 

COURTS.  See  Chancery  Courts;  Juve- 
nile Court;  Police  Court 

CRIMINAL  JURISPRUDENCE:  fundamental 
thought  not  reformation,  but  pun- 
ishment, 186,  203 

CRIMINAL  PROCEDURE  AGAINST  CHIL- 
DREN, rulings  of  supreme  courts: 
Colorado,  200;  Idaho,  190;  Illi- 
nois, 193;  Louisiana,  189;  Michi- 
gan, 191,  192,  194;  New  Hamp- 
shire, 189;  Oregon,  ^200;  Pennsyl- 
vania, 190;  Utah, 192, 197 

CRIMINAL  RESPONSIBILITY,  AGE  OF,  185, 
189,  195,  204;  raised  in  1907,  205 

CROWDED  HOME,  relation  to  delin- 
quency: ages  of  parents  at  mar- 
riage, 123-125;  cruelty  of  parents, 
1 20,  121;  incompetence  and  shift- 
lessness,  121,  122;  mixed  families, 
119-122;  place  of  the  child  in  the 
family,  116-118;  size  of  family, 
115,  116;  step-parent,  a  cause  of 
friction,  119-121;  unsympathetic 
parents,  122,  123 


348 


INDEX 


DANCE  HALLS,  158 

DEGRADED  HOME,  relation  to  delin- 
quency: child  a  victim  of  degraded 
surroundings,  101-105,  106,  108- 
110,  113,  114;  conditions  result  in 
immorality  of  girls,  108,  113; 
dependency  due  to,  no,  112;  par- 
ents rights  subject  to  control  of 
court,  114,  173,  178-188,  194,  199; 
physical  surroundings  wretched, 
109,  no 

DELINQUENCY  MAP:  showing  location 
of  homes  of  delinquent  children,  150 

DELINQUENT  CHILDREN:  are  also  neg- 
lected children,  170;  condition 
prior  to  enactment  of  juvenile 
court  law,  203;  court's  definition, 
ii  ;  custodial  care  of,  205,  221; 
methods  by  which  they  are  dis- 
covered and  brought  to  court,  206, 
207;  not  criminals,  4,  203-205; 
period  covered  by  court  records, 
14;  selection  of  groups  for  special 
study,  15;  support  of  child  by 
parent,  method  of  enforcing,  242. 
See  also  Dependent-delinquent; 
Semi-delinquent 

DELINQUENT  CHILDREN,  STATISTICS, 
1899-1909:  ages  for  each  year,  24, 
26;  ages  of  parents  at  marriage, 
124;  disposition  of  cases,  40; 
number  brought  to  court  each  year, 
21  ;  number  of  children  in  families, 
116;  number  of  girls  taken  from 
immoral  resorts,  37;  number  of 
times  children  were  brought  to  court 
in  eight-year  period,  42;  offenses 
each  year,  28,  29,  36,  39;  place  of 
child  in  the  family,  117 

DENVER  JUVENILE  COURT,  198 

DEPENDENT  CHILDREN  :  condition  prior 
to  enactment  of  Juvenile  Court 
Law,  1899,  203;  court's  definition, 
ii  ;  institutions  for,  40;  methods  by 
which  they  are  discovered  and 
brought  to  court,  206,  207;  no 
public  institutions,  but  semi-pri- 
vate, 217;  question  of  the  juris- 
diction of  Juvenile  Court,  185 

DEPENDENT-DELINQUENT  CHILDREN: 
statistics,  in;  typical  cases,  112, 


DESERTION,  91,  92,  98,  102 


DESPLAINES:-  Chicago  Industrial  School 
for  Girls,  218;  farm  school,  46 

DETENTION  HOME,  5,  198;  directions 
as  to  bringing  children  into,  235, 
236;  duty  of  police  to  take  delin- 
quent child  to,  206,  207;  function 
of,  226-228 

DETROIT  JUVENILE  COURT,  191, 192 
DISORDERLY  CONDUCT:  defined,  31 


EARNINGS  OF  THE  CHILD.    See  Child 
Wage-earners 

ECONOMIC    GROUPS:     classification    of 
families,  70-74,  170-173 

EDUCATION,  COMPULSORY.     See  Com- 
pulsory Education 

EMANCIPATION  TO  THE  CHILD:  father's 
right  to  give,  184 

EMPLOYMENTS.    See  Occupations 

EPILEPTIC  CHILDREN:  no  state  institu- 
tion for  care  of,  142,  244 

ERRING  WOMAN'S  REFUGE,  108 


FAMILIES:  classification  into  economic 
groups,  70-74,  170-173;  family 
the  unit  with  which  the  court  deals, 
170,  172,  174;  girls'  families  of 
lower  grade  than  those  of  boys,  73; 
number  of  children  in,  statistics, 
115,  116;  two  broad  classifications, 
173 

FAMILY:  not  the  child,  unit  with  which 
the  court  deals,  170,  172,  174 

FAMILY  HISTORIES:  show  importance 
of  family  unit,  6;  value  of,  in  court's 
decisions,  5-10 

FAMILY  PARAGRAPHS,  18,  19,  267  ff., 
3i4ff. 

FAMILY  SCHEDULE,  16-18;  copies  of, 
333  «• 

FARM  SCHOOLS:  Desplaines,  46;  Glen- 
wood,  218 

FEDERATION  OF  PROTESTANT  CHURCHES 
46 


349 


INDEX 


FEEBLE-MINDED  CHILDREN:  girls  com- 
mitted to  Geneva,  145;  list  of  boys 
brought  to  court  as  delinquent, 
147-149;  only  one  institution  for 
their  care,  142 

FEEBLE-MINDEDNESS:  relation  to  illit- 
eracy, 142,  144,  145 

FIELD  HOUSES,  155,  156 

FINES:  imposed  upon  boys  sent  to 
Bridewell,  i,  2 

FLIPPING  TRAINS,  32,  33 

FOREIGN  CHILD:  problem  of  adjust- 
ment to  conditions  of  American 
life,  55-57,  62-68,  184,  185 

FOREIGN  COLONIES,  their  relation  to 
delinquency:  attitude  toward  prop- 
erty rights,  68;  child's  sense  of 
superiority  to  parents,  67,  68; 
compulsory  education  not  under- 
stood, 64,  66,  184;  failure  to  learn 
English,  63,  184;  rural  habit  of 
thought,  65,  66;  separateness  of 
life  and  ideals,  55-64 

FOREIGN  NATIONALITIES.  See  Na- 
tionality 

FOREIGN  PARENTS.    See  Parents 
FRIENDLY  VISITOR,  163-165 

GANG  PROBLEM,  33-35,  41,  156,  168 

GENEVA  STATE  TRAINING  SCHOOL.  See 
State  Training  School  for  Girls 

GIRLS:  country  girls,  perils  of  their 
occupations  as  compared  with  those 
of  city  girls,  77-79;  dangers  of 
public  dance  halls,  158;  depart- 
ment stores,  dangers  of,  16,  77; 
dependent  delinquent,  111-113; 
domestic  service,  dangers  of,  78; 
early  employment,  victims  of,  76; 
homeless  girls  who  are  delinquent, 
typical  cases  from  court  records, 
93-95;  illiteracy  worse  than  that 
of  boys,  144;  immoral  resorts,  37; 
means  used  to  protect  girls'  repu- 
tations, 37,  38;  methods  of  secur- 
ing information  relating  to  de- 
linquent, 16,  18;  occupations  be- 
fore commitment,  statistics,  78; 
offenses,  problems  presented  in 
dealing  with,  16,  17,  35-38,  44-47; 
school  status  of  delinquent,  142- 


GIRLS  (Continued) 

145;  temptations  to  delinquency 
due  to  conditions  of  employment, 
77~79>  to  depraved  homes,  106- 
108;  testimonies  as  to  beginning 
of  irregular  relationships,  159; 
unregulated  amusements,  results 
of,  157,  158;  wage-earners,  96. 
See  also  Delinquent  Children,  Sta- 
tistics 

GLENWOOD  MANUAL  TRAINING  SCHOOL 
FARM,  40,  218 

GROUPS,  ECONOMIC:  classification  by. 
See  Economic  Groups 

GUARDIAN:  appointment  of,  209 

HEALY,  DR.  WILLIAM  J.,  234,  235 

HOMES:  effort  of  poor  to  purchase, 
work  hardship  to  children,  81-83. 
See  also  Crowded  Home;  Degraded 
Home 

HOUSE  OF  CORRECTION,  127 

HOUSE  OF  THE  GOOD  SHEPHERD,  40, 
44,  46,  217 

HOUSEKEEPER,  VISITING,  173 

HULL-HOUSE:  its  assistance  in  the 
investigation,  6;  its  situation,  151, 
iS3 

KURD,  HON.  HARVEY  B.,  4 

HURLEY,  TIMOTHY  D..  23 


IGNORANT  CHILD.  See  School  Attend- 
ance 

ILLINOIS  CHILDREN'S  HOME  AND  AID 
SOCIETY,  210 

ILLINOIS  INDUSTRIAL  SCHOOL  FOR  GIRLS, 
40,  218 

ILLINOIS  STATE  TRAINING  SCHOOL  FOR 
GIRLS.  See  State  Training  School 
for  Girls 

ILLITERACY:  a  contributing  cause  of 
delinquency,  45,  64,  65,  75;  girls 
more  illiterate  than  boys,  144; 
relation  to  truancy  and  feeble- 
mindedness, 136-142,  144 

IMMIGRANTS.     See  Foreign  Colonies 


350 


INDEX 


IMMORALITY  OF  GIRLS:  ages  and  num- 
bers taken  from  immoral  resorts, 
37;  dangers  of  public  dance  halls, 
158;  means  used  to  protect  girls 
brought  to  court  on  this  charge, 
37,  38;  testimonies  as  to  begin- 
nings of  irregular  relationships, 
159;  unregulated  amusements,  re- 
•  suits  of,  157,  158 

INCORRIGIBILITY:  defined,  30,  35 

INDUSTRIAL  SCHOOL  FOR  GIRLS  ACT, 
203,  215,  221 

INDUSTRIAL  SCHOOLS.  See  Chicago; 
Illinois 

INSANITY  AND  DEGRADATION  in  the 
home,  103,  104 

INSTITUTIONS:  accredited,  214-216; 
available  to  the  court  in  disposing 
of  delinquent  children,  44,  217, 
218;  number  of  children  committed 
to,  1890-1909,  40.  See  also  names 
of  institutions 

INVESTIGATION  OF  JUVENILE  COURT 
RECORDS:  methods  pursued,  15- 
18;  period  covered,  14,  15;  prac- 
tical results,  16;  purpose,  n,  19; 
selection  and  limitation  of  ma- 
terial, 12,  13 

INVESTIGATORS  OF  JUVENILE  COURT 
RECORDS,  14,  73 


JEWISH  HOME  FOR  THE  FRIENDLESS,  121 

JOHN  WORTHY  MANUAL  TRAINING 
SCHOOL,  i,  2,  40,  44,  217;  a  prison 
school  for  worst  type  of  delinquent, 
133 

JOLIET  PRISON,  7,  127 

JUDGE,  CHILDREN'S:  basis  of  his  de- 
cisions, 19;  desirability  of  having 
judge  give  entire  time  to  juvenile 
court,  196;  many  cases  settled  in 
judge's  chambers,  207;  nearness 
to  children  in  court  room,  199; 
personality  important,  197;  prob- 
lem to  be  determined  by,  198; 
qualifications  necessary,  197,  198; 
woman  judge  desirable,  175 

JUKES  FAMILY:  a  celebrated  family  of 
criminals,  39 

JUNIOR  BUSINESS  CLUB,  40 


JUVENILE  COURT:  basis  of  judge's  de- 
cision, 19;  classes  of  children  dealt 
with,  ii ;  differences  in  method  of 
dealing  with  children  brought  into 
court,  40;  difficulty  of  its  task, 
19,  20,  174;  disposition  of  cases  of 
all  children  brought  to  court,  40, 
207-211;  equipment  and  facilities, 
5,  9,  23,  43,  44;  establishment, 
conditions  which  led  to,  1-4; 
foundation  principle,  187;  general 
policy,  43;  great  primary  service, 
8,  19,  35 ;  institutions  available 
to  the  court  in  disposing  of  de- 
linquent children,  44,  217,  218; 
jurisdiction  over  children  until 
twenty-one,  204,  205,  221;  legal 
problems  involved  in  establish- 
ment, 181-201;  novel  features,  13, 
181-210;  number  of  boys  and 
girls  brought  to  court,  1899-1909, 
24;  number  of  cases  handled,  243; 
object,  199;  officers,  6;  reforms 
needed,  243-246;  relation  to  other 
courts,  174;  release  of  children 
from,  223-225;  substitutes  for 
natural  parental  care  should  con- 
sist of  both  paternal  and  maternal 
elements,  175;  time  given  by 
judge  to  the  work  of,  223,  229 

JUVENILE  COURT  LAW:  age  limit,  12, 
23,  25;  amended,  1907,  219; 
criminal  responsibility  and  pro- 
cedure in  various  states,  188-200; 
development  in  practice  and  pro- 
cedure, 204-246;  enacted,  1899, 
2,  4,  187;  includes  dependent, 
neglected,  and  delinquent  chil- 
dren, 205;  institution  to  which 
children  are  sent  must  be  of  same 
religious  belief  as  parents,  218; 
protection,  how  it  is  accomplished, 
1 88;  report  may  be  asked  for 
from  accredited  institutions,  214- 
216;  special  features,  4 

JUVENILE  COURTS  OF  AMERICA  :  studied 
and  adopted  by  other  countries,  188 

JUVENILE  PROTECTIVE  ASSOCIATION: 
secured  censorship  of  plays  in 
cheap  theaters,  157,  158 

JUVENILE  PSYCHOPATHIC  INSTITUTE  : 
for  study  of  abnormal  cases,  5,  18, 
169,  172,  173,  199;  value  of  its 
work,  234 


35' 


INDEX 


KALES,  ALBERT  M.,  202 
KOREN,  JOHN,  6 

LEGAL  PROBLEMS  involved  in  establish- 
ment of  Juvenile  Court,  181-201 

LINDSEY,  JUDGE  BEN  B.,  198 

LONDON:  children's  magistrate,  195; 
juvenile  courts,  197;  supervision 
of  children  leaving  school  to  enter 
trades,  79,  80 

LONDON  COUNTY  COUNCIL:  Juvenile 
Advisory  Committees  appointed 
by,  79 

LOUISE  HOME,  214,  215 

MACK,  JULIAN  W.,  6,  23,  181 

McMANAMAN,  J.  J.,  23 

MANUAL  TRAINING  SCHOOL.  See  John 
Worthy  Manual  Training  School 

MANUAL  TRAINING  SCHOOL  FOR  BOYS 
ACT,  203,  215,  221 

MAPS  OF  CHICAGO:  showing  density  of 
population  by  wards,  152;  showing 
location  of  homes  of  delinquent 
children  (folder),  150 

MENTALLY  DEFECTIVE  BOYS.  See 
Feeble-minded  Children 

MINORS:  police  orders  for  protection  of, 
176,  182 

MOTHER:  community  slow  in  giving  her 
equal  rights  with  father,  175;  de- 
linquent, 106,  107 

MOTHER,  WORKING:  earnings,  84,  85; 
her  necessary  neglect  of  children,  6, 
82,  86,  89,  95^97, 171;  occupations, 
84,  85;  physical  and  industrial  un- 
fitness,  71;  statistics,  7,  84,  85 


NATIONALITY:  of  delinquent  boys,  and 
age  at  which  they  entered  school, 
128;  Jof  foreign  born  parents,  60,  61 

NATIVITY  OF  PARENTS:  statistics,  57, 
59,  61,  62 

NEGLECTED  CHILDREN:  court's  defini- 
tion, ii 


NEGROES:  families,  size  of,  116;  popula- 
tion, 56,  57,  59,  61,  62;  quarters, 
location  and  sanitary  conditions, 
153 

NEIGHBORHOOD  NEGLECT:  relation  to 
delinquency,  150,  159,  170,  171 

NICKEL  THEATER,  157,  158 
NURSE,  SCHOOL,  173 


OCCUPATIONS:  boys,  74,  75;  girls,  76- 
79;  London's  supervision  of  chil- 
dren leaving  school  to  enter  trades, 
79,  80;  working  mothers,  84,  85 

OFFENSES:  of  boys  and  girls  brought  to 
court,  1899-1909,  28,  29,  36;  of 
boys  from  comfortable  homes,  161- 
166;  nature  of  charges  which  bring 
children  into  court,  31-39,  74; 
number  of  children  brought  into 
court,  28,  29,  36,  39;  number  of 
delinquent  boys  from  comfortable 
homes,  166;  property  rights,  com- 
parison of  boys  and  girls  for  vio- 
lation of,  38,  39;  selected  list  of 
charges  for  which  children  are 
brought  to  court,  48-54;  statistics, 
28,  29,  36,  39,  1 66;  terms  used  in 
describing  misdemeanors,  27-33 

ORPHAN  AND  HOMELESS  CHILD,  relation 
to  delinquency:  desertion  by  par- 
ents, 91,  92,  98,  102;  half-orphan- 
age? 95-99>  insanity  or  crime  in- 
creases the  danger  to  the  home, 
103;  parental  condition,  statistics, 
91,  92,  119;  re-marriage  of  either 
parent,  99,  100,  119-121;  substi- 
tute for  family  life,  problem  of,  90; 
unfit  relatives,  100;  unfitness  of 
surviving  parent,  101-103 

PARENTAL  CARE:  delinquency  caused 
by  lack  of,  90-101 ;  substitutes  for, 
should  consist  of  both  paternal  and 
maternal  elements,  175 

PARENTAL  CONDITION  of  delinquent 
child,  statistics,  91,  92,  119 

PARENTAL  DUTY  AND  CONTROL:  inade- 
quate, 30-32,  45;  legal  aspect  as  to 
support,  maintenance,  protection 
and  education,  182-185,  195;  new 
principles  of,  13,  173 


352 


INDEX 


PARENTAL  POWER  OF  THE  STATE,  181, 
182,  185,  187,  189,  194,  199 

PARENTAL  RIGHTS:  country  slow  in 
giving  mother  equal  rights  with 
father,  175;  discrimination  of  the 
court  in  judging,  173;  superseded 
by  the  authority  of  the  court,  114, 
178-188,  194,  199;  wages  of  child, 
31,  80-83,  89,  183-185 

PARENTAL  SCHOOL:  for  truant  boys,  22, 
28,  40,  139 

PARENTS:  ages  at  marriage,  123-125; 
age  of  foreign,  at  immigration,  63; 
apparent  inferiority  to  the  child,  67, 
68;  failure  to  understand  compul- 
sory education,  64,  66,  69, 130,  139, 
184;  nativity,  statistics,  57,  59,  61, 
62;  number  of  foreign,  understand- 
ing English,  63;  rural  people,  65. 
See  also  Step-parent 

PARK  COMMISSION,  154 

PARKS:  areas  of,  in  seven  congested 
wards,  155;  establishment,  154 

PAROLE  OF  CHILDREN:  to  citizens  who 
are  officers  of  institutions,  214-218; 
on  farms,  212,  213;  semi-delinquent 
children  paroled  to  reputable  citi- 
zens, 211 

PHYSICAL  AND  MENTAL  CONDITION  OF 
CHILD  :  responsible  for  delinquency, 
88 

PINCKNEY,  JUDGE  MERRITT  W.,  23;  tes- 
timony before  Cook  County  Civil 
Service  Commission,  1911,  202-246 

PLAY:  essentials  of  satisfying,  157 

PLAYGROUNDS:  recreation  facilities  fur- 
nished by,  155-157 

POLICE:  duty  under  instruction  of  Ju- 
venile Court,  206,  207,  241:  orders 
for  protection  of  minors,  175,  176 

POLICE  COURT:  jurisdiction  over  chil- 
dren prior  to  1899,  i 

PONTIAC  REFORMATORY,  2,  7,  127 

POPULATION:  congested  districts,  150- 
IS3>  J58;  density  by  wards,  statis- 
tics, 151;  foreign,  number  of  na- 
tionalities represented,  55,  61; 
map  showing  density,  152 

POVERTY,  relation  to  delinquency:  ex- 
ploitation of  the  child  by  avaricious 


POVERTY — (Continued) 

parents,  81-83,  J84,  185;  hardships 
of  the  child  wage-earner,  74-81; 
physical  and  mental  condition  of 
the  child,  88;  working  mother,  84- 
86 

PRISONS.    See  names  of  prisons 

PROBATION:  denned,  215;  keynote  of 
Juvenile  Court  legislation,  195-199; 
practice  with  dependent  and  delin- 
quent children,  208-213,  215 

PROBATION  DEPARTMENT,  216,  217; 
jurisdiction  of,  229;  taking  charge 
of  child  after  trial,  233 

PROBATION  OFFICERS:  chief  officer  tried 
on  charges  of  incompetence,  202; 
cooperation  between  city  and 
county  officers,  240;  division  into 
groups  for  special  work,  243;  duties 
of  head  officer,  233-235;  duties  of, 
in  taking  charge  of  children  before 
trial,  232;  duty  of  being  present  in 
the  court,  230;  duty  to  furnish  in- 
formation and  assistance  to  judge, 
231 ;  influence  of,  in  petty  disputes, 
199;  paid  staff ,  expense  assumed  by 
county,  1905,  23;  parents'  appre- 
ciation of  services,  167;  qualifica- 
tions, 174,  185,  212;  volunteer, 
character  of  work  done  by,  210-213 

PROBATION  SCHEDULE,  16,  42 

PROPERTY:  INTEREST  OF  CHILD:  as  es- 
sential to  jurisdiction,  181,  182 

PROPERTY  RIGHTS:  comparison  of  boys 
and  girls  for  violation  of,  38,  39; 
inability  of  immigrants  to  under- 
stand American  ideas,  68;  responsi- 
bility of  poverty  for  violation  of, 
86-88 

PROSTITUTION:  ages  and  numbers  of 
girls  taken  from  immoral  resorts, 
37;  dangers  of  public  dance  halls, 
158;  means  used  to  protect  girls 
brought  to  court  on  charge  of  im- 
morality, 37,  38;  testimonies  of 
girls  as  to  beginnings  of  irregular 
relationships,  159;  unregulated 
amusements,  results  of,  157,  158 

PSYCHOPATHIC  INSTITUTE.  See  Juve- 
nile Psychopathic  Institute 


353 


INDEX 


RAILROAD  PROPERTY:  trespass  against, 
a  legal  wrong,  68 

RAILROADS:  their  responsibility  for  de- 
linquency, 32,  87,  88,  153 

RECREATION:    relation  to  delinquency, 

IS4-IS9 
RECREATION  CENTERS:    establishment 

and    relative    frequency    of,    154; 

number  of,  155 

RECREATION  FACILITIES,  155-157 

REFORM  INSTEAD  or  PUNISHMENT: 
growth  of  the  idea,  186 

REFORMATORIES:  importance  of,  in 
dealing  with  juvenile  offenders,  186; 
regarded  as  prisons  by  Illinois,  194. 
See  also  Pontiac  Reformatory 

REFUGE  FOR  PROTESTANT  GIRLS,  40,  44, 
217 

RELEASE  OF  CHILDREN  from  the  Ju- 
venile Court,  223-225 

REPEATERS,  41,  42,  67,  120,  122 

REPUTABLE  CITIZENS:  as  guardians  of 
the  children,  208-211;  semi-delin- 
quent children  paroled  to,  211 

ROOMING  HOUSES:  ages  and  numbers  of 
girls  taken  from,  37 

RURAL  COMMUNITIES:  degraded  condi- 
tions in,  107 

RURAL  STANDARDS  OF  THE  IMMIGRANT: 
a  factor  in  adjustment  to  American 
standards,  65,  68,  69 


ST.  CHARLES  SCHOOL  FOR  BOYS,  40,  44, 

i33,  217 
ST.  MARY'S  TRAINING  SCHOOL  FOR  BOYS, 

40,  46,  218 

ST.  VINCENT'S  ORPHAN  ASYLUM,  214, 
216 

SANITARY  INSPECTOR,  174 

SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE,  relation  to  de- 
linquency :  age  at  which  boys  leave 
school,  statistics,  129;  age,  legal, 
127-133;  boys'  own  estimate  of 
help  received,  133-136;  girls, 
school  status  of,  142-145;  length 
of  attendance,  128-131;  nation- 
ality and  age  at  which  boys  entered 


SCHOOL  ATTENDANCE — (Continued) 
school,  statistics,  128;  rate  of  prog- 
ress during,,  128,  130,  143,  144;  re- 
quired attendance,  period  of  ex- 
tended, 139;  truancy,  its  connec- 
tion with  illiteracy  and  delinquency, 
140-142, 144.  See  also  Compulsory 
Education 

SCHOOL  CERTIFICATE.  See  Working 
Papers 

SCHOOL  NURSE,  1 73 

SCHOOL  STATEMENT:  data  furnished  by, 
127-145;  requirements,  126 

SCHOOLS:  in  House  of  Correction,  187; 
in  Juvenile  Court  building,  5,  23. 
See  also  School  Attendance 

SEMI-DELINQUENT  CHILDREN,  210,  211 

STATE  TRAINING  SCHOOL  FOR  GIRLS, 
GENEVA,  6,  40,  44,  73,  217;  investi- 
gation of  family  histories,  17 

STATISTICS.    See  List  of  Tables,  p.  ix 

STEALING:  methods  used  to  secure  resti- 
tution, 239;  serious  offense  of  the 
boy  from  the  comfortable  home, 
161-165.  See  also  Offenses 

STEP-PARENT:  as  a  factor  in  life  of  delin- 
quent child,  99,  100,  119-121,  161 

STEWART,  ETHELBERT,  6 

SUBNORMAL  CHILDREN:  relation  to  de- 
linquency, 1 8 

SUPPORT  OF  CHILD  BY  PARENT:  legal 
aspect,  183-185;  method  of  enforc- 
ing court  order,  242 

SUPREME  COURT  RULINGS.  See  Crim- 
inal Procedure  Against  Children 


TABLES.     See  List  of  Tables,  p.  ix 
TAYLOR,  DR.  GRAHAM,  6 
THEATERS,  NICKEL,  157,  158 
THURSTON,  HENRY  W.,  23 
TOYNBEE,  ARNOLD:  Quoted,  81 
TRADES.     See  Occupations 

TRAINING  SCHOOL  FOR  BOYS.     See  John 
Worthy  Manual  Training  School 

TRAINING    SCHOOL    FOR    GIRLS.    See 
State  Training  School  for  Girls 


354 


INDEX 


TRUANCY  :  relation  to  illiteracy  and  de- 
linquency, 137-142;  statistics,  141 

TRUANT  CHILDREN:  court's  definition, 
ii ;  Parental  School  established  for 
care  of,  22,  28,  40,  139 

TRUANT  OFFICER,  174 

TUTHILL,  JUDGE  RICHARD  S.,  6,  23,  187 


UNMANAGEABLE  BOY  from  the  comfort- 
able home:  ages  of  boys,  167;  gang 
influence,  168;  indulgent  parents 
and  lack  of  discipline,  166-168;  in- 
explicable cases,  160,  161,  169,  172, 
173;  offenses  of  delinquent  boys, 
161-166;  probation  and  friendly 
visitor  helpful  means  of  dealing 
with,  163-165,  167;  statistics,  166; 
unfavorable  conditions  in  the  home, 
other  than  pecuniary,  161, 162, 164, 
165,  172,  173 


VAGRANCY  denned,  31,  118,  119 

VICE,  ORGANIZED:   situations  requiring 

investigation,  17 

VISITATION  COMMITTEE:  for  the  investi- 
gation of  institutions,  214 


WAGE-EARNERS. 
earners 


See      Child      Wage- 


WAGES  OF  CHILDREN:  parental  right  tb 
control  of,  31,  80-83,  183-185 

WAGES  OF  WORKING  MOTHERS,  84,  85 
WARDS  OF  THE  COURT:  defined,  181 
WITTER,  JOHN  H.,  23,  202,  216 

WOMAN  JUDGE:  desirability  of  having 
for  juvenile  court,  175 

WOMEN:  influenced  Board  of  Education 
to  establish  school  in  House  of  Cor- 
rection, 187;  secured  reformatory 
methods  of  dealing  with  youthful 
offenders,  183,  184;  secured  segre- 
gation measures,  187 

WORKING  BOYS'  HOME,  210 
WORKING  MOTHER.    See  Mother 
WORKING  PAPERS:  132,  138-140 


YOUTHFUL  OFFENDERS  ACT,  England 
1901,  195 


355 


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Women  and  the  Trades.  By  Elizabeth  B. 
Butler.  Illus.  440pp.  Price  $1.50;  post- 
paid $1.72. 

Work-Accidents  and  the  Law.  By  Crystal 
Eastman.  Illus.  xvi,  345  pp.  Price  $1.50; 
postpaid  $1.72. 

Homestead;  The  Households  of  a  Mill  Town. 
By  Margaret  F.  Byington.  Illus.  xv,  292 
pp.  Price  $1.50;  postpaid  $1.70. 

Steel  Workers,  The.  By  John  A.  Fitch. 
Illus.  xiii,  380  pp.  Price  $1.50;  postpaid 
$1.73. 

Pittsburgh  District,  The.  By  Devine,  Woods, 
Commons  and  others.  Illus.  xviii,  554  pp. 
Price  $2.50;  postpaid  $2.75. 

Wage-Earning  Pittsburgh.  By  Kellogg, 
Commons,  Kelley  and  others.  Illus.  xv, 
582  pp.  Price  $2.50;  postpaid  $2.75.  ' 


Saleswomen  in  Mercantile  Stores.  By  Eliza- 
beth B.  Butler.  Illus.  xv,  217  pp.  Price 
$1;  postpaid  $1.08. 

San  Francisco  Relief  Survey.  By  McLean, 
O'Connor  and  others.  Illus.  xxv,  483  pp. 
Price  $3.50. 

Social  Work  in  Hospitals.  By  Ida  M. Cannon, 
xii,  257  pp.  Price  $1.50. 

Visiting  Nursing  in  the  United  States.  By 
Yssabella  Waters.  377  pp.  Price  $1.25. 

Wider  Use  of  the  School  Plant.  By  Clarence 
A.  Perry.  Illus.  xiv,  423  pp.  Price  $1.25. 

WEST  SIDE  STUDIES: 
2  Vols. 

Edited  by  Pauline  Goldmark. 
Boyhood  and  Lawlessness;    The  Neglected 

Girl.    Part  2  by  Ruth  S.  True.    Illus.    xxii, 
'    358  pp.     Price  $2. 
Middle  West  Side;  Mothers  Who  Must  Earn. 

Part  1  by  Otho  G.  Cartwright;   Part  2  by 

Katharine  Anthony.     Illus.    xvi,  296  pp. 

Price  $2. 


Women  in  the  Bookbinding  Trade.    By  Mary 

Van   Kleeck.     Illus.     xx,  270  pp.     Price 

$1.50. 
Working  Girls  in  Evening  Schools.    By  Mary 

Van  Kleeck.    Illus.  xi,252pp.  Price  $1.50. 
Workingmen's    Insurance    in    Europe.      By 

Frankel  &  Dawson.    xviii,  477  pp.     Price 

$2.50;   postpaid  $2.70. 


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